Blueprints for the Future

In recent years it has become clich to speak of the growing importance of space systems and their capabilities to US national security in general and to military operations in particular. At the very least, the changing national security environment and our experiences in the Gulf War have caused a more open discussion of what those space-based capabilities are and what they should be. Along with a greater awareness of space has come realization that the systems often seem unresponsive to the needs of some users and that gaps exist in our capabilities. Many see the current US space "architecture" as fragmented or stovepiped, and inflexible. At the same time, decreasing budgets mean that the solution to any problems cannot simply be the purchase of additional capability; the times demand more efficient answers