Access to space-based systems has radically changed naval warfare over the past three decades, yet until now no book has described what has happened. Space systems began as an essential support for strategic missiles such as Polaris. Now they form the basis for net-centric warfare. The current revolution in military affairs is largely an extension of the space-based naval warfare concepts developed since the late 1970s. It began with over-the-horizon missile targeting and then evolved to the outer air battle of the 1980s and to current concepts of littoral and deep-strike warfare. This is the first study to go beyond the usual descriptions of space-based navigational and communications systems to describe surveillance and targeting systems and tactics, both offensive and defensive, as they evolved in the U.S. and the old Soviet navies. It also examines likely future developments, including the impact of the new civilian imaging satellites, the pressure to shift from military to civilian-owned communications systems, and the potential for anti-satellite weapons. This book looks at past attempts at and the likely potential of space-based anti-submarine warfare.
Until recently, the secrecy surrounding many naval space systems has precluded any account of their significance, or indeed of the way in which they are changing naval warfare. Now enough information has been declassified or has become available with the collapse of the Soviet Union to make such a book possible. Norman Friedman evaluates the significance of space technology to the western alliance, the impact of the United States' near-monopoly of space assets, and the attempts by other nations to develop their own alternatives.
