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"Today, the ultimate high ground is space."

General Joseph W. Ashy
Commander, USSPACECOM

Project 1997-0563

Disclaimer | Bibliography | Credits

Security and Foreign Disclosure Reviews accomplished: 1997 June 17

Almost simultaneously as man put artificial satellites into orbit around the earth, he began exploiting them for commercial, military and national security purposes. As civilian use of space has grown along with the military's, the recent pace of civilian technological sophistication has quickly narrowed the US military's lead. These space services now "for hire," are in direct competition with the military and may pose a considerable threat to future military operations against even non-space powers, who can buy satellite services, often simply using the Internet. Military forces have traditionally been labeled blue for friendly and red for adversary, but these satellite systems do not fit into either category. We thus define "Gray Space" to reflect these systems available to the general populace that could potentially be used against the US and its allies for hostile purposes. Gray Space systems pose unique military, political, diplomatic and informational challenges to conflicts and the war planners who must prepare for them.

This document explores Gray Space by presenting an overview of the current status of these Gray Space systems and their potential impact to the warfighter. The first section is a brief look at US space doctrine and current US military space capabilities, including our own use of Gray Space. This sets the stage for the second section which presents the first space war—Desert Storm. Here, space's use, misuse and potential uses will be described to give an idea of doctrine in practice. The next section is a compendium of Gray Space systems currently fielded, describing their capabilities, services, and ease of access. Section four walks the reader through the space planner's process—how he assesses and addresses Gray Space threats with respect to a particular area of responsibility (AOR) and potential adversary nations. Finally, section five will attempt to project where Gray Space is going in the future and how we must plan for its continued growth.

Instructions

This document is meant to be read sequentially through the five sections below. Clicking on the title takes the reader to the particular section. Each section then returns to this "Home Page." Throughout the document, endnotes are linked to the particular reference at the end of the section. Image references are annotated as comments in the source code, accessible by right clicking on the text. Also, terms and acronyms that may require definition, or are not defined within the section, are linked to a glossary. Finally, to obtain more information on space issues and many of the satellite systems contained in this document, the Internet sites annotated in the Bibliography will link to the particular sites if this browser is connected to the Internet.