Electronic warfare (EW) is nearly as old as electronics itself, but the combination of electronic warfare and cyber warfare is more recent and holds the possibility of extending the reach of the enemy into space—a domain that until recently was controlled entirely by only a handful of nation states. Operations in the space domain today are increasingly contested, degraded, and operationally limited, and conflict will inevitably arise. As the potential for conflict continues to increase, states are developing advanced counterspace capabilities.
While the existence of counterspace capabilities is not new, the circumstances have changed. Today, there are increased incentives for development and potential use of offensive counterspace capabilities and greater potential consequences of their widespread deployment, as large parts of the global economy and society are increasingly reliant on space applications. Space capabilities play an increasingly important role in national security and military operations, and collective reliance on space capabilities makes them a target for adversary counterspace operations.
Conflict domains in space include ground-to-space warfare (e.g., attacking satellites from the Earth), space-to-space warfare (e.g., satellites attacking satellites), and space-to-ground warfare (e.g., satellites attacking Earth-based targets). Space assets today face many threats, both natural and man-made, from multiple attack vectors…
20200527 NatSecJournal – Electronic Warfare in the Space and Cyber Domains (Newbold)
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