Space Control Isn't Freedom of Action

摘要

The war in space began during Operation Iraqi Freedom," declared Air Force General Lance Lord in December 2004, "when Saddam Hussein's forces placed GPS [Global Positioning System] jammers around Baghdad in attempt to defeat the accuracy of our GPS aided munitions." Not that it mattered. Days after Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the U.S. Air Force released a grainy video of a GPS-guided bomb wiping out the last of the jammers. Still, Department of Defense officials ominously mentioned Iraq's GPS jamming in speeches and Congressional testimony. Then-Air Force Secretary James G. Roche actually sounded excited about Iraq's efforts to jam GPS signals, explaining that the Defense Department "had been waiting for this to happen and wondering when someone would finally do it. This was the first time that we could point to something in an unclassified way and say, 'See, someone is trying to interfere with our ability to use space to get the effects we desire.'" General Lord's description of a "war in space" was strange— the ground-based jammers employed by Iraq targeted the GPS receivers, not satellites. Downlink jamming no more threatens assets "in space" than a tipsy fisherman who dumps his GPS receiver in the lake.