Explosion of Commercial Space and the Implications for National Security

摘要

BECAUSE I SPENT 27 years of my professional life in assignments related to the national-security space program and be cause space continues to be my abiding passion, it is not surprising that I have chosen to write about space-specifically, the significant changes in the evolution of the national space program and my views on the implications for military space. The article also ad dresses some ramifications for the intelligence community. A vitally important topic, space has always played a significant strategic military role, but the mainstream neither under stood it nor appreciated its criticality to modern tactical war fighting-until Operation Desert Storm, which opened the eyes of senior military leaders. Now, space is like air-conditioning- everyone who needs and wants information from space wonders how we ever got along without it. All joint documents under score this fact, including Joint Vision 2010 and Transforming Defense: National Security in the 21st Century, the latter report emphasizing the importance of space and stating that 'unrestricted use of space has become a strategic interest of the United States.'.