Military Space Doctrine

General Thomas D. White, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, introduced the term, "aerospace," during Congressional testimony in the late 1950s. He did this to anchor future Air Force functions, roles, missions, and tasks in this operational medium. We must continue this thrust—an Air Force dedicated to a future in space.Our scientific, technological, and economic communities have established the industrial base for this Nation to proceed with the conduct of space operations. Now our basic doctrine and strategy and our operational concepts, doctrine, and strategy must advance to provide the direction, scope, and vision necessary for future space programs and operations.Purposeful action must be taken to build a spaceoperations capability. We must build the conceptual foundation for space missions by understanding the opportunity for military space operations. We must develop an extended plan and strategy—with the priorities— to establish our space functions and responsibilities. We must establish the institution to organize, develop, train, equip, and sustain our space forces. And we must set up a unified organization for deployment and employment of space resources.Then we must act to bring our concepts to reality. All these efforts are required to preserve the security, freedom, and welfare of the United States.