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Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
What is Spacepower and Does it Constitute a Revolution in Military Affairs?
By Lt. Col. Peter L. Hays
Abstract
A confluence of trends and recent developments has elevated national security space issues close to the top of the American defense policy agenda. During 2000, national security space issues were carefully examined in three of the most important congressionally mandated studies ever convened on this subject: The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Commission, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) Commission, and the Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization (Space Commission). These studies—along with the arrival of the George W. Bush Administration; the installation of Donald H. Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense; and ongoing sweeping changes in senior military leadership positions including General Richard B. Myers as the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John P. Jumper as the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and General Lance W. Lord in the new fourstar billet as commander of Air Force Space Command—create an outstanding opportunity to examine current national security space issues and to place them into a broader context. Accordingly, this paper attempts to outline answers to two fundamental questions concerning the relationship between space and national security: 1) what is spacepower? and 2) does spacepower constitute a revolution in military affairs?