USSF Doctrine: Chapter 3
If you haven’t read any in this series yet, you can start at the beginning of my analysis of the USSF Doctrine in my Introduction post.
Chapter 3: Military Spacepower
Like the others, this chapter opens by emphasizing the importance of space as the ultimate position: a superposition. Spacepower as a coercive tool is unmatched.
Also of note is an acknolwedgement of the enduring nature of war, and the understanding that “ultimately humans, not weapons, fight wars. “This human element injects uncertainty, disorder, emotion, adaptation, and cunning into the conduct of war.” Until such a time as we elect for an artificial intelligence to fight our wars and determine our spatial operations we will continue to operate in an environment of human error and uncertainty. This is an element we can count on in our opponent’s operations as well, though our strategy should not be determined on an expectation of their error.
We’ve talked about space as an operational domain and we’ve talked about national spacepower; this chapter is devoted to an outline of procedures, collaboration, and prime functionality.
Joint Functions
These seven joint functions are key to ensuring that the efforts of thousands of actors are not random but work together to achieve goals.
Command and Control (C2): exercise of authority to direct forces for accomplishing missions.
Information: all things concerning the collection, management, and application of information. This can help drive behavior, disrupt adversary decision making, and support friendly decisions making.
Intelligence: this function supports the commanders’ predictive understanding of operational environments. Intelligence is refined information.
Fires: deployment of weapons to create desired effects.
Movement and Maneuver: placing forces in a position of advantage relative to an adversary.
Sustainment: logistical support to military forces to maintain combat capability.
Protection: preserves effectiveness of military and nonmilitary personnel, equipment, etc.
I’ll backtrack and dwell on #2 and #3 because we live in the Information Age.
“One key distinction of warfare in the Information Age is that many weapons systems rely on external sources of information to function.”
Target identification, weapon guidance, you name it: information is, perhaps
now more than ever, power. As mentioned in previous chapters, the network dimension of our space operations is essential because it provide that platform for our officers to have critical in-the-moment information and connection.
Strategy
Space power is best used in warfare as coercive leverage. The doctrine outlines two types of coercive strategy:
Incapacitation: this strategy seeks to render an opponent’s key capability useless through destruction or disability. An opponent who is helpless to resist is an opponent who is ready to make a deal.
Erosion: this strategy seeks to convince an opponent that surrender is the best option available.
“This continuous struggle to leverage strengths against an opponent’s weaknesses makes deception a cornerstone of any strategy in warfare”. This reflects Sun Tzu in The Art of War: “All warfare is based on deception”.
According to this doctrine, warfare in space becomes a clash of wills. “The adversary in space warfare is never a spacecraft of some other inanimate system. Space warfare targets the mind of the adversary and seeks to neutralize their capability and will to resist.” This plays into the cognitive dimension mentioned in Chapter 1.
To better understand the strategy at play, let’s examine the value of military spacepower from the perspective of this document. “The attributes of the space domain make military spacepower unique from the other forms of spacepower”.
Ultimate global perspective. The abilities of a military with competent space operations are global, lethal, penetrating, and persistent. Such a force could have an all-encompassing and instantaneous ability to monitor and rapidly respond to threats without establishing a large footprint.
Outward perspective. There are many areas in the space domain which are only observable from the space domain (ex: the dark side of the moon).
This section closes with an acknowledgement again towards the human element and deception. Even from the “high ground” of space we must continue to be wary. A perceived advantage can quickly turn into a weakness if the advantage is assumed or taken for granted.
Physical, Network, and Cognitive
How does strategy in space tie into the three dimensions of space operations? They’re not sequential; they are simultaneous, meaning that we can’t focus all energy on developing one then move on to the next. They are tightly coupled. Full range of spacepower will not be realized without serious deliberation and coordination in all three dimensions.
The Physical Domain requires an understanding of two systems through which strategic moves are posed.
LOC: line of communication. An LOC is any route which connects employed miltary forces with a base of operations and along which supplies and military forces move.
KOT: key orbital trajectory. A KOT is any orbit from which a spacecraft can support users, collect information, defend other assets, or engage an adversary. Not all KOT’s are made equal! These can be defined in relation to a celestial body (inertial KOT), relative to an advantageous energy state (energy KOT), or relative to another trajectory (orbital KOT).
The Network Domain had its importance stressed in a prior analysis, but the key takeaway here is it’s potential to isolate. A successful attack on network operations can easily cripple entire segments of operations in the physical domain and leave actors helpless.
The Cognitive Dimension: the human mind. This is the place where all strategic warfare is determined and, as mentioned above, the place where all warfare is actually played. Deception focuses on outwitting the intelligence gathering capabilities of an opponent and, from there, into their cognitive dimension. A key here is “preserving the ability to observe and orient within the environment in order to effectively decide and act from a remote location” (stress on the remote location because, after all, these ops are in space).
Finally, a timely mention of the importance of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, or EMS, which is related directly to the network dimension but ultimately effects all three dimensions. The EMS is the conduit through which we transmit information. As such, it is a “potential conduit through which space missions can be disrupted or held at risk”. Building security within the EMS is of vital importance. If there’s one area which most vulnerably can be exploited for nefarious means, it’s our EMS.
The chapter closes with an observation that “military spacepower cannot unilaterally win wars, but… its success, absence, or failure could prove catastrophically decisive.”
Next, details about with the Employment of Space Forces.
