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

One can no longer depend only on space systems to provide the onceunique perspective of space’s orbital heights. In the commercial communicationsbusiness, terrestrially based cellular networks and fiber optics helpeddrive Iridium, a satellite-based system, into bankruptcy. Cellular networksand fiber optics will continue to dominate, using robust private investmentto match satellite communications, advance for advance. Given their large lead,surface-based communications will likely keep their lead for a long time.In the same way, UAVs, high-altitude airships, and unattended groundsensors are making rapid progress in their support of remote sensing andpersistent surveillance. 6 These alternative systems adapt to the needs of abattlespace and offer some means of replacing our space architecture. Activitiesformerly conducted only from the high ground of space now takeplace in the atmosphere. When technological advances made all this a reality,space ceded the high ground.With regard to access, one remembers that the Soviets shot down the U-2piloted by Francis Gary Powers as he attempted to reconnoiter areas forwhich we had no detailed space coverage. Today, satellites provide that informationwithout putting human beings in harm’s way. One still encounterslimitations to the details detectable via space systems, but only some ofthe same challenges apply to airborne or ground systems.This is not to say that commanding space is unimportant. The absolutevalue of space-based ISR systems, unique and not easily replaced, is not theissue. Their relative value, however, appears to be shifting. Space will remainone of the places from which we collect information, but in the future wewill find solutions to our remote-sensing problems by netting space systemswith both air and ground systems—even subterranean systems. 7 Networks ofspace and airborne and terrestrial sensors now overshadow the importanceof the high ground of space.Pathway Three: Air-/Earth-Based Combat Systems with Space-Based ISR SystemsThe coupling of the Joint Direct Attack Munition with the global positioningsystem (GPS), a fertile example of this pathway, is well known—so muchso that it does not require detailed treatment here. The deployment ofspace-based GPS provided revolutionary advancements in terrestrial andaerial military power projection and precision. Ultimately, the GPS does notproduce combat power but enables its projection, making it worthy of inclusionin this examination of space-based ISR systems. Since the US militaryrelies so heavily on the GPS, it places a priority on the robustness of thesystem. 8 The Department of Defense is exploring methods of GPS navigationbased on terrestrial and airborne systems as an alternative to reinforcingGPS space-based assets.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), for example,has begun exploring the use of airborne pseudosatellites to overpower GPSjammers and the use of navigation via signals of opportunity to “provide theUS warfighter with the ability to geo-locate and navigate effectively when21