Four questions: what does space deliver to the forces on Earth (enhancement)? What is needed to keep satellites up there (support)? How do you make sure you can use space and the opponent cannot (control)? And can you achieve an effect on Earth from space itself (application)?
In practiceA GPS-guided bomb is enhancement; launching a replacement GPS satellite is support; jamming an enemy satellite link is control; and application — weapons from space against targets on Earth — does not (yet) exist in practice.
Until 2018 US doctrine (JP 3-14) divided military space activity into four mission areas. The taxonomy was then dropped, but is still widely used in training, literature and by other countries.
| Mission area | What | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Space force enhancement | Space multiplies combat power on Earth | ISR, missile warning, weather, SATCOM, PNT |
| Space support | Building and sustaining space capability | Launching, operating satellites, replacing them after loss (reconstitution) |
| Space control | Freedom of action in space for yourself, and where necessary denying it to the opponent | Space surveillance, defensive and offensive space control (see chapter 6) |
| Space force application | Combat operations in, through or from space that influence the course of a conflict on Earth | Largely theoretical at the time; missile defence is sometimes placed here |
The terms heard in practice — space enhancing, space support, space warfare — come from this taxonomy. "Space warfare" then falls under space control (and, in theory, force application).