A Shot to the Space Brain

The US military is becoming reliant on space systems. These systems provide us the essential information and communication means required to dominate the future battle-space. This reliance has extended beyond military programs, however, and now includes a reliance on commercial and civil systems. While this trend towards non-military systems is inevitable, does reliance on civil and commercial space systems create a unique center of gravity for the US military? This paper evaluates this issue by first identifying the need to use non-military systems and then developing a theory for analysis of realistic vulnerabilities of space systems. The focal point for this analysis is the command and control segment for a particular program. Four specific civil and commercial systems (Landsat, SPOT, Radarsat, and INTELSAT) are evaluated in light of this analysis.