In 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense established the U.S. Space Force (USSF), a separate armed service for space. The authors of this report seek to understand potential areas and types of friction that might arise between the USSF and other government entities, with a focus on the relationship between the USSF and the U.S. Air Force, and to offer some options to mitigate potential friction.

Navigating the Kármán Line

Integrating Military Air and Space

Michael Spirtas, Sarah Harting, Julia Brackup, Christopher Ferris, Jonathan Fujiwara, George Nacouzi, Michael Nixon, Joseph B. Piroch, Anthony D. Rosello, Ryan C. Thulin

ResearchPublished Oct 22, 2024

Cover: Navigating the Kármán Line
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In 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) established the U.S. Space Force (USSF), a separate armed service for space. The authors of this report seek to understand potential areas and types of friction that might arise between the USSF and other government entities, with a focus on the relationship between the USSF and the U.S. Air Force (USAF), and to offer some options to mitigate potential friction. 

To research this issue, the authors organized along three general tasks—organizational analysis, tactical analysis, and a review of governance mechanisms—to inform options for managing and mitigating friction. The organizational analysis focused on roles and missions relating to air-space integration to identify potential sources of friction. The tactical analysis developed models for three hypothetical use cases where air and space forces work together in tactical operations to identify potential areas of friction and to gain more of an incremental understanding of that relationship and insight into potential friction points. The third task examines governance mechanisms within DoD to understand how decisions are made in joint settings and inside other DoD departments, and to inform decisionmaking structures inside the Department of the Air Force (DAF).

Key Takeaways

  • Since 2019, there has been relatively little friction between the USAF and the USSF.
  • Most of the sources of friction identified since the establishment of the USSF exist outside the DAF, not inside it.
  • The continued growth of the USSF and other developments will change air-space seams and require active management.
  • Friction could arise over space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and command and control. In addition, it is possible that friction could arise over space-based precision, navigation, and timing; communications; and weather.
  • Conditions will continue to change within and beyond the DAF.

Recommendations

  • Rather than relying on personal relationships or top-down initiatives, now is the time for the DAF to identify and develop governance or other related mechanisms to guide interservice decisionmaking and coordination across shared issues and interests.
  • The USAF and the USSF can continue to generate goodwill with one another by working together outside the DAF. By promoting common positions in the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Deputy's Management Action Group, and other arenas, the two services can defend the DAF's budget, promote DAF initiatives, and advance other common DAF equities.
  • A great way to decrease tension is to conceive of and field capabilities that help the other service. This is already being done today for ISR as the two services work to develop air-based and space-based platforms to support joint operations, but differences may arise in areas where there are shared interdependencies between the services.
  • Both the air and space communities would benefit from an increased understanding of how operations in one domain affect operations in the other. Guardians are developing more of an operational mindset, which should help in this regard. Likewise, airmen would benefit from a more precise understanding of how space supports air operations and how air can support space now and in the future.
  • The DAF should foster and promulgate a vision for the relationship between the two services and a sense of common purpose. A DAF vision for the air-space relationship should support and recognize service independence while promoting operational interdependence.

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Spirtas, Michael, Sarah Harting, Julia Brackup, Christopher Ferris, Jonathan Fujiwara, George Nacouzi, Michael Nixon, Joseph B. Piroch, Anthony D. Rosello, and Ryan C. Thulin, Navigating the Kármán Line: Integrating Military Air and Space. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1744-1.html.
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