Dr. Kelly Hammett
USSF, Director and Program Executive Officer, Space Rapid Capabilities Office
Kelly D. Hammett earned his Air Force commission as a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Norman. He earned a master’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and a Ph.D. from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, Ohio.
Hammett served on active duty in the Air Force for 20 years in positions related to directed energy weapon system technology development and acquisition. He finished his service as Director of Engineering of the Airborne Laser Program. He developed and flight tested more than 10 first-of-their-kind, world-record-setting directed energy technologies for space surveillance, missile defense, force protection, air superiority, and global precision attack mission needs.
Hammett was the Director of Directed Energy Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico prior to his current role. He has headed the U.S. Space Force Space Rapid Capabilities Office since 2022.
In the News…
Space Force Director Kelly Hammett of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office recently discussed the new orbital warfare capability through phased-array antennas being developed. The Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource (SCAR) program provides satellite command and control software to modernize antiquated parabolic antennas the Satellite Control Network currently uses.
Dr. Hammett said, “It is always a challenge to get everybody on board simultaneously linked up, and that’s why the priority that’s being placed on SCAR and R2C2 is really helpful, because we will get the priority from the operators and the testers.”
Though continued development hinges on the 2026 fiscal year budget, the director said that “from a force design perspective, I think the service has come around to a position that we’re going to need a bunch of SCARs, and we’re going to need them as fast as we can make them.”
Director Hammet continued, “[T]his capability is so important to where we’re headed in the next couple of years, with having the capacity to make the SCN stand up to all the new systems that are coming and all the new mission requirements that they’re going to have.”
