The first business of every theory is to clear up conceptions and ideas which have been jumbled together, and, we may say, entangled and confused and only when a right understanding is established as to names and conceptions, can we hope to progress with clearness and facility, and be certain that author and reader will always see things from the same point of view. Finally, the advantages of technological superiority are presented as a critical part of the strategy for success in space warfare, with the goal of achieving a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in space. The result of this analysis will be a theory of space warfare, a paradigm-driving approach to viewing and understanding the nature and needs of war in space, as a means for warfighters to best address and win any future conflict in space. This article will build its framework deductively, by exploring some of the current thinking on military theories in general, as well as examining their applications to space warfare, specifically. However, with the prospect of warfare in space rising once again, the necessity for generating a theoretical basis for combat operations in space itself with greater clarity has similarly arisen. Importantly, no combat operations have ever been conducted in space, and resultantly, the emphasis on space “warfare” theorizing has been on the overall power concepts to be derived. Power in any given medium includes commercial and non-combat military operations and direct combat operations. While the latter papers endeavor to encompass all aspects of a nation's interests and operations in space under a single theoretical framework, this article focuses on the cognition of a theory of war in space. This article will focus on developing theoretical principles of space warfare as distinct from most other treatises in this field, which focus on space power theory. With such a framework, increased clarity regarding the nature, mechanics, and goals of war in space can then be applied to the process of designing weapon systems as well as planning, deploying, training, and conducting space-combat operations. A theory of warfare in space must first be derived before any sort of space combat preparations can begin.

space assets and related military and economic security. The time has arrived to address the issue of warfare in space, driving the need for a conceptual framework with which to approach the defense of U.S. A growing number of states are developing the means with which not merely to access and exploit space but to conduct space warfare as well. 1 Although space has never actually been forcibly contested, this initial period of coincidental inability and unwillingness to fight over space is coming to an end. It is hoped that these principles will prove useful in future to the processes of designing weapon systems as well as planning, deploying, training, and conducting space combat strategies and operations.Įarth orbital space is a militarily and economically critical arena to the United States (U.S.), and it became a battleground in 1944, when the first operational Nazi German V-2 weapons briefly exited the Earth's atmosphere on their way to raining destruction on London.

The result of this analysis is a set of theoretical principles summarizing and describing the nature and needs of war in space. It accomplishes this via a deductive process, exploring some of the current thinking on military theories in general, and examining their applications to space warfare specifically. This paper focuses on developing a theory of space warfare, as distinct from most other treatises in this field, which focus on space power theory.

The time has thus arrived to address the issue of war in space, driving the need for a conceptual framework with which to approach the defense of U.S. A growing number of states are developing the means with which not merely to access and exploit space, but to conduct space warfare as well. While space has never been forcibly contested to date, this initial period of coincidental quiescence is coming to an end.

Earth orbital space is a militarily and economically critical arena to the U.S.

Space warfare books