Aerospace commission report light on details: blue-ribbon study criticized by its own members for lack of specific solutions.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Analysis

A high-level panel chartered to propose ways to make the U.S. aerospace sector more competitive in the global marketplace delivered a set of recommendations that, critics said, are unlikely to result in concrete action to help the industry.

The "Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry," jointly appointed by Congress and the Bush administration in 2001, issued its final report in November.

The report included nine recommendations to Congress and the administration on how to ensure the U.S. world leadership in aerospace. The panel, however, failed to provide enough details about how to execute its vision for U.S. aerospace dominance, said commissioner John Hamre, a former deputy secretary of defense and current president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said that the report is so imprecise that it is unlikely to be of assistance to the industry. "This report is too general and diffuse to have the impact I believe is needed," Hamre wrote in a dissenting viewpoint published as an appendix to the report.

Among the recommendations was that the United States bolster its commitment to aerospace technology commerce and exploration, as well as improvements of the U.S. air transportation system.

The air transportation system has experienced a "meltdown" since the September 11 attacks, said commissioner John W. Douglass, who is the president of the Aerospace Industries Association. "The combination of the economic downturns and post 9/11 government policy decisions produced an untenable situation for the industry," he said.

Douglass recommended that further action beyond the report's recommendation be taken by the government to "assume the full costs and responsibilities for assuring the protection of our aviation system against terrorist attack"

The third recommendation was to "create a space imperative." According to the report's chairman, one-time Rep. Robert Walker, R-Pa., "We need to focus less on where we want to go [in space], and more on propulsion and power."

Robert Stevens, a commissioner who also is the chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., said that this recommendation "does not fully address the continuing deterioration of the space launch industry base ... To date, there have been only two commercial satellite sales during 2002, with limited prospects for additional sales," he said.

Stevens stressed that the United States must address the critical state of the existing launch...