{"id":136500,"date":"2020-09-14T17:43:23","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T17:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smg.go-vip.net\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/14\/space-dominance-requires-taking-technology-and-policy-risks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:14:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:14:03","slug":"space-dominance-requires-taking-technology-and-policy-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/commentary\/2020\/09\/14\/space-dominance-requires-taking-technology-and-policy-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Space dominance requires taking technology and policy risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Both before and during World War II, Gen. George C. Marshall realized that America could not hope to defeat its enemies unless he could flatten a sprawling military bureaucracy. One day in 1940, when a subordinate told Marshall of a frustrated businessman who could find no takers for a low-slung vehicle<\/a> that could drive through the most rugged terrain, Marshall asked him if the vehicle was any good. The officer, Maj. Walter Bedell Smith, replied that, yes, it was. So Marshall simply told him: \u201cDo it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As author Eric Larrabee recounts in his masterful book, \u201cCommander in Chief,\u201d that vehicle was the now-iconic Jeep, and it helped win the war after the U.S. military and allies purchased more than 650,000 of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those lessons apply today. As we build the U.S. Space Force, the first new, independent military branch since 1947, our competitors are taking away the luxury of time. To counter that, we are committed to crafting a lean organization that will respond rapidly to new threats posed by peer competitors China and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sense of urgency is one of the most important elements if we are to carry out the nation\u2019s National Defense Strategy and prepare to protect America and its allies in a high-end fight. In the nine months that we have spent building the Space Force, our focus has been on finding ways to go faster, to stay ahead of our adversaries, and to safeguard America\u2019s security and prosperity now and into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons for urgency are clear. Through intense study of our potential enemies, validated during multiple war-gaming exercises, we know that space is critical should our nation be plunged into conflict. Current Russian and Chinese military doctrine prioritizes new capabilities to attack our space systems in order to disrupt, blind and disconnect our joint land, sea, air and cyber forces at the outset of war. In recent years, both countries have developed and demonstrated anti-satellite capabilities, even destroying their own to send a clear signal to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our war-gaming scenarios have taught us something else: Because there are few places to hide in space, there is a significant \u201cfirst mover\u201d advantage in the event of conflict. This problem is made worse, as our current space systems were designed for a benign domain. This is why we are pursuing a resilient architecture of capabilities designed to exact military space power should war initiate in, or extend to, space.<\/p>\n\n\n\t