Dominating the Battlespace: Filling Capability Gaps in Support of Joint Warfighters

摘要

The world has changed dramatically in the past decade, and our Nation's military forces have significantly changed in response. Concurrent with supporting joint warfighters engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), our military capabilities are evolving to fight terrorism, meet nontraditional, asymmetric threats, and shape a defense structure better able to support and facilitate transformation. This broader focus, articulated in the recent Quadrennial Defense Review, released in February 2006, also requires capabilities to defend against traditional threats, conduct humanitarian missions at home and abroad, and help our Nation's allies and partners develop their own defense capabilities. To a degree not envisioned a decade ago, the lessons gained in ongoing combat operations and the impact of transformation have resulted in enhanced capabilities for our Nation's joint warfighters. Speed, power, precision and agility in 'dominating the battlespace' have all been enhanced. Space-based capabilities, integrated as systems-of- systems, have been instrumental to this process. Former Vice Commander, Air Force Space Command, LTG Daniel Leaf, said, 'Space... makes us more effective, more precise, and limits the tragic destruction that's inevitable in war.' Space assets have also enabled the conservation of combat power and saved countless lives. For example, Space assets have supported many of the more than 30 combat search and rescue missions conducted in Iraq. Once thought of as being restricted to the domains of land, sea and air, the current concept of the battlespace is defined as 'the environment, factors and conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force or complete the mission. This includes the air, land, sea, Space, enemy and friendly forces, facilities, weather, terrain, the electromagnetic spectrum and the information environment within the operational areas and areas of interest.