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What’s new: We discovered this interesting fact sheet Space Force issued.
Why it’s important: When GPS was first launched space was a fairly safe place to put things. Now it is pretty dangerous. Not only is it a warfighting domain, it is a lightly governed, mostly ungoverned, commons. Everyone wants to use it, no one is responsible to take care of it.*
What else to know: The fact sheet focuses a lot on adversarial threats to satellites. It only mentions cyber once (in the Russia section) and jamming once (in the China section). In our humble opinion, at least in the PNT arena, electronic warfare on the ground and in space is a far bigger threat. It is reversable and much less likely to cause a shooting war no one wants than a direct attack on a satellite.
Other threats that could have been mentioned:
- Space debris/ Kessler Syndrome – Some observers think the Kessler Syndrome may have begun already. It just takes a while to get going. “Slowly boiling the frog.”
- Solar activity – It’s the sun. The most powerful thing for billions and billions of miles.
- Other nations besides China and Russia. – How about N. Korea? Iran? Maybe even India?
* Our way of explaining “the tragedy of the commons.” Something we also see in maritime, cyberspace, and other areas/domains held in common by many.
