Increasing the Solvency of Spacepower

ISBN: 1288311834

Author: Wagner, John W

Condition: New

A new approach to spacepower acquisition is essential to ensure America's continuing advantage in space. The United States must create better options to guarantee that its political leaders and military commanders can continue to depend on military spacepower, and that it remains a continuing competitive advantage for America. At the center of a new space acquisition strategy, advocated in this thesis, is the creation of a spacepower system development and demonstration phase similar to other DOD acquisition cycles. Military spacepower continues to enhance the elements and instruments of US national power and increases the effectiveness of military forces. The useful operational lives of the spacecraft that currently provide these benefits, however, are rapidly running out. Each DOD spacecraft constellation is currently in transition, and the Air Force is attempting to recapitalize every space mission area near simultaneously. These recapitalization efforts have been fraught with technical problems, delays, and significant cost overruns.