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Space Power

Posted on: Thursday, 8 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

SPACE POWER IS becoming an increasingly important aspect of national strength, but experts disagree about how best to develop its potential. Like airpower, space power relies heavily upon advanced technology, but technology is useless unless space professionals apply it properly. Air Force leaders recognize that the service needs to nurture a team of highly dedicated space professionals who are prepared to exploit advanced technologies and operating concepts. Today, space power provides supporting functions such as communications, reconnaissance, and signals from global positioning system (GPS) satellites-tomorrow, space may become the site of combat operations. Concern about the future direction of military activities in space has spurred debate over which technologies to produce and how best to develop space professionals. Moral, theoretical, and doctrinal questions also loom large. Underlying all of these considerations are political and diplomatic factors.

Morality poses unique challenges for space power. People have fought on land and at sea for millennia, but some see space as a pristine domain, unsullied by human conflict, and want to keep it that way. Others see space power as a critical, asymmetric military advantage ripe for exploitation by technologically advanced nations. The way political forces adjudicate this ethical issue will strongly influence the future military use of space.

Like airpower, space power lacks an overarching theory. Some professionals view theory as a type of Holy Grail; others take a more pragmatic approach. Space theories have traditionally featured derivatives of seapower and airpower thought. Space-power theory generally considers the control of space analogous to the vital task of regulating the sea and air. Fleshing out the details of how to gain control of space and what to do afterward, however, has proven difficult. Pragmatic space professionals might point out that space power has already achieved a great deal without the benefit of a completely satisfying theory.

Efforts to formulate space doctrine-derived from theory, previous experience, and other sources-inspire especially active and varied commentary. Current Air Force doctrine addresses everything from fundamental "tenets of space power" to more specific guidance about integrating space into the combined air and space operations center (CAOC). The issue of "weaponizing" space poses questions that may alter the relationship between operations in space and those in the air, on the ground, and at sea. Air Force space professionals continue to grapple with such important doctrinal questions.

The high cost of space technology drives the need to develop cogent moral, theoretical, and doctrinal underpinnings for space power. By doing so, we can persuade our political leaders to spend money on the right technologies and force-development initiatives, thereby assuring the United States the maximum benefit from space power.

LT COL PAUL D. BERG, EDITOR

Copyright U.S. Superintendent of Documents Summer 2004

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