Sovereignty and Protective Zones in Space and the Appropriate Command and Control of Assets

This paper examines two issues that are of vital importance to short and long term operations in space and the combat engagement of space borne assets. The first issue analyzed is the question of the establishment of sovereignty and protective zones for free passage in space. This paper will compare international law treaties and other historical analyses to current United States (US) war fighting doctrine on space and propose a United States Air Force (USAF) position on this issue. It will define and discuss the definition for two space protective zones. First and foremost, the immediate safety zone by the space object and secondly, the actual identification area around the object and its orbital track. The second issue will be intricately more complex on determining the engagement of space assets in both peacetime and wartime. The possible issue of criminal and civil liability will be discussed. The command and control of space assets will be briefly addressed with the second issue as it continues to be an ongoing controversy. Three differing views will be addressed. The concept that will be centered on will be that of integrating space into the air operations cells along with making some form of either a combined control cell at the Joint Forces Commander level or a stand-alone cell.