Report: “Strategic Master Plan FY04 and Beyond” Air Force Space Command

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – The new Air Force Space Command Strategic Master Plan has been released and is accessible via the command’s public website.

The plan, “Strategic Master Plan FY04 and Beyond,” presents the AFSPC vision; outlines a strategy to implement this vision; and defines a twenty-five year plan, integrated across the AFSPC mission areas, to provide the space capabilities required to achieve the vision.

The plan can be found on the AFSPC public website.

Strategic Master Plan FY04 and Beyond

5 Nov 02

1. Introduction

1.1. PURPOSE

Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) creates the Strategic
Master Plan (SMP) as the capstone to its two-year Integrated
Planning Process (IPP). The SMP presents the AFSPC vision;
outlines a strategy to implement this vision; and defines a 25-
year plan, integrated across the AFSPC mission areas, to
provide the space capabilities required to achieve the vision.

During the IPP, AFSPC works to ensure the SMP is both
fiscally and technologically feasible and develops products to
provide programming and budgeting guidance for AFSPC and
Air Force Materiel Command product centers and research
laboratories. The SMP also serves as the foundation for our
inputs to Air Staff planning and programming activities.

1.2. BACKGROUND

Our space systems and capabilities have become key to our nation’s military effectiveness.
Without them, our military forces would not enjoy many of the advantages we currently have
over our adversaries. Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) 2-2, “Space Operations”,
emphasizes the importance of space. Consider the following words extracted from AFDD 2-2:
Just as the advent of airpower greatly enhanced military operations of the time,
space forces, likewise, greatly enhance modern military operations across the
spectrum of conflict.

Air Force doctrine views air, space, and information as key ingredients for
dominating the battlespace and ensuring superiority.

Effective use of space-based resources provides a continual and global presence
over key areas of the world … satellites permanently “forward deployed” add another
dimension to the capability of our force’s ability to quickly position themselves for
employment.

Military forces have always viewed the “high ground” position as one of dominance
and warfare advantage. With rare exception, whoever owned the high ground owned
the fight.

This capability (Space) is the ultimate high ground of US military operations.

Today, control of this high ground means superiority in information and significant
force enhancement. Tomorrow, ownership may mean instant engagement anywhere
in the world.

Planners should consider integrating future development capabilities, such as the
capability to deliver attacks from space, into the campaign plan when determining
how best to strike adversary Centers of Gravity (COG). Space force application
systems would have the advantages of rapid global access and the ability to
effectively bypass adversary defenses.

It is AFSPC’s responsibility to organize, train and equip our forces by developing, acquiring,
fielding, and sustaining space systems and capabilities to exploit and control the high ground of space. AFSPC already has significant space capabilities and a large supporting infrastructure in
operation. To help understand these systems and their complexities and to facilitate its train and
equip role, AFSPC has organized these capabilities based on the functions they perform into
four mission areas and Mission Support as highlighted in Figure 1-1. These mission areas will
be used throughout the SMP to present AFSPC’s plan to more fully exploit and control space.

While this SMP has organized AFSPC’s force
modernization plan into the above mission
areas, we also are engaged in the Air Force
initiative to define needed capabilities into the
seven task forces identified in Figure 1-2.
This plan is based on warfighter needs
identified prior to the development of these
task forces. However, because of the degree
of commonality between the two sets of
needs, we believe this plan addresses the
capabilities required by the task forces.
Future versions of the SMP will be based on
the set of capabilities required by the task
force concepts of operations (CONOPs).

1.3. SMP OVERVIEW
In the next chapter, the SMP presents
AFSPC’s vision by briefly describing AFSPC
today, where AFSPC wants to be in 25 years,
the basic strategy to get there, and our major
thrusts to sustain, modernize, and transform
our capabilities. Chapter 3 then presents
AFSPC’s plan to implement its vision, while
the last chapter describes the way ahead and
some of the implementation challenges
AFSPC may face.

Figure 1-1: AFSPC Mission Areas and Mission Support

Space Force Enhancement

– focuses on capabilities that contribute to maximize the effectiveness of
military air, land, sea and space operations

Counterspace

– focuses on capabilities to attain and maintain a desired degree of space
superiority by allowing friendly forces to exploit space capabilities while
negating an adversary’s ability to do the same

Space Force Application

– focuses on missions carried out by weapons systems operating from or
through space for holding terrestrial targets at risk

Space Support

– focuses on providing the critical launch and satellite control infrastructure,
capabilities and technologies that enable the other mission areas to
effectively perform their missions

Mission Support

– functional areas that cut across all of our mission areas and provide the
required infrastructure

Figure 1-2: Air Force Task Forces

• Global Strike
• Homeland Security
• Global Mobility
• S&C4ISR (Space and Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance)
• Global Response
• Nuclear Response
• Air and Space Expeditionary

The plan can be found on the AFSPC public website.