Evaluating Space as the Next Critical Infrastructure Sector
evaluates the direct potential space brings to U . S . military strategy and implementation . The most significant gain from holding the ultimate high ground arrives from the advantage in reconnaissance , being able to observe the enemy and shorten one ’ s own OODA loop for military actions . 3 As of 2020 , the U . S . possesses the only Space Force stood up as an independent military branch . Russia previously established an independent service arm as a Russian Space Force , but this was merged into the overall Aerospace Forces ( VKS ) in 2015 and never a fully independent service ( Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation , 2015 ). Finally , maintaining a space presence allows for early warning of adversary attacks and provides a command and control loop outside terrestrial interception . These three advantages combine to make space CI vital to national security and prove H2 as true .
The third hypotheses counters the previous two by stating the establishment of a space CI sector remains unnecessary as all required functions are covered by other sectors . If this evaluation were proved true than the H1 and H2 evaluation areas would be common across the scoring metric .
H3 . If space industry infrastructure is currently protected by other DHS Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource than a unique designation is not required .
During the evaluation , space scored as positive for safety , health , economic benefit , and national security . Of the other 16 sectors , only three show positive in the same areas ; energy , communications , and Information Technology . Comparing the individual scores for each sector , the previous three areas again outscore space while space also ties with emergency services . A combined aggregate score of the previous two hypotheses places space as a the number one ranking , with the highest score , while the digital spaces score immediately behind .
Full spectrum analysis allows the possibility space may be ranked incorrectly by the combined scoring and lean towards an individual ranking . During the individual ranking , sectors with the same score were scored as tied . The topthree scoring sectors , and , ranked higher than space CI , were energy , communications , and information technology . Space tied for second place with emergency services and the remaining eleven infrastructure sections were all ranked lower . Some space aspects may be covered by either communications or infrastructure technology , those sectors are software and hardware , respectively . All CI aspects likely require some overlapping coverage from those two sectors just as all functions require energy . Additionally , economic scoring based on a quantitative metric might yield different results .
Space ’ s unique structure means the cyber requirements under software
3 OODA is a common term in decision making processes and stands for Observe , Orient , Decide , and Act . In military tactics , the key is to able to complete one ’ s own OODA loop before the enemy . Intelligence operations like reconnaissance make the OODA loop smaller than the adversaries and allows one to complete more cycles , faster .
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