Fall 2006 - Air & Space Power Chronicle - Air Force Link

Integration of Space-BasedCombat SystemsCORTNEY KONNERRONALD POPE*THE CONCEPT OF combined arms—integrating different militarycapabilities to achieve effects not available from applying the individualcapabilities in isolation—provides a key asymmetric advantageto American military forces. Foreign military planners covetAmerican-style jointness and seek to emulate it. Although the integration ofexisting capabilities is a key enabler, having a monopoly on new capabilities(and the means to integrate them quickly and effectively) is also powerful.As with American-style jointness, potential adversaries also envy the nearmonopoly on space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance(ISR) systems enjoyed by the American military.The advantages provided by integration and by near monopolies on spacebasedsystems warrant careful consideration by organizations responsible fordelivering them to the war fighter. To analyze the opportunities and challengesinherent in the military use of space, one should consider the four classes ofmilitary capabilities and the six integration pathways they create (see fig.). Ofthese four classes, three currently exist, as do the three integration pathwaysbetween them (1, 2, and 3). For the most part, space-based combat systemsremain in the conceptual stage (indicated by the dotted lines), as do the integrationpathways that their deployment would create (4, 5, and 6).The Challenge of Getting Integration RightThis article explores the opportunities exploited and the challenges overcomein the three existing integration pathways. It does so with an eye towardmaximizing the utility of the three future integration pathways that willprovide military advantages when space-based combat systems become areality. Since integration has proven its value for existing systems and capabilities,expectations for integrating future capabilities remain high. At leastone complicating factor exists, however. As technology explodes in applicationsfor war fighters, the choice of space-based versus air-/Earth-based systemsis no longer an either/or proposition: because each host medium offersdistinctive advantages, operating in and from two media becomes*We are grateful to our colleagues Dr. Michael Stumborg, Jeffrey Barnett, Robert Bivins, Deborah Westphal, andRichard Szafranski for their help with this article.The authors are consultants with Toffler Associates.18