Title: Space Doctrine for the 21st Century
Subject: Space Doctrine
Author(s): Robert D. Newberry; Thomas S. Kelso (Faculty Advisor)
DTIC Keywords: DOCTRINE, MILITARY DOCTRINE, SPACE WARFARE
Abstract:
Today there is virtually no approved space doctrine to guide the
development and employment of space forces. The supporting strategies
for organizing, training, equipping, and employing space forces do not
exist. There is no discussion of the tenets of space power or the
operational art of employing space forces.
Space policy has emerged to fill the doctrinal void. Policy is the major
influence on the organization, training, equipping, and employment of
U.S. space forces. The preeminence of policy and absence of doctrine
has caused military effectiveness to be muted in the debates over space
forces.
Without a clear vision of what space forces should do, the Air Force has
been left to build space forces in an ad hoc manner. There is no
doctrinal guidance for how to achieve the offensive and defensive mix of
forces called for in the national space policy and there is no approved
process from which the needed doctrine can be developed. Although
doctrine development follows a proscribed bureaucratic process, little
consideration is given to the underlying thought process.
This paper attempts to define a doctrine development process and use it
to formulate a space doctrine. This doctrine includes the tenets of
space power, the operational art of space warfare, and implementation
strategies for space forces. This doctrine can be immediately applied to
ongoing space operations.