John J. Klein
Russian aggression against Ukraine highlights the interconnectedness of the space and cyberspace domains. In 2022, Russia conducted a cyberattack against Viasat, a California-based provider of high-speed satellite broadband services and secure networking systems covering military and commercial markets worldwide. The cyberattack against Viasat was meant to cripple Ukrainian command and control ahead of the ground invasion of Russian forces the following day. Lessons learned from this event include that conflicts may begin in the space and cyberspace domains before the ground war and that integrated space and cyberspace operations can work together to achieve combined military effect. As a result, the next administration must focus on combined space-cyberspace national policies and defense strategies addressing the interconnectedness between the two operational domains.
Of all the operational domains, cyberspace has the most significance for space operations. Generally understood, cyberspace is the world’s computer networks (both open and closed), the computers themselves, the transactional networks that send data for financial transactions, and the networks comprising control systems that enable machines to interact with one another. Space capabilities and services often rely on these same computer networks, information systems, and communication architectures to exchange space-enabled data and information.
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