To successfully execute military objectives in a highly contested domain, the Space Force must understand the tactical execution and timing of space power. How does the OODA loop work in a space environment, and what is the optimal timeline needed to observe and orient before deciding? Within this decision-making cycle, is the United States equipped and prepared to use offensive assets to neutralize enemy space assets and constellations in a timely and effective manner?
Understanding how to strike requires an understanding of what to strike and how to protect allied assets. How are Centers of Gravity (CoGs) for offensive actions prioritized regarding emerging Space Domain capabilities or Space Power projection, and how can the Space Force ensure the ability to carry out these critical missions in a contested environment?
To ensure operators have the validated tactics required to execute these critical missions and navigate the space OODA loop effectively, the military must ensure its internal validation processes can keep pace with the threat. What existing or potential tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) validation methodologies are there in the intelligence community or commercial industry for Space? Ultimately, this research must provide a cost/benefit analysis to determine the utility and feasibility of leveraging these outside methodologies for streamlining or innovating current USAF/USSF TTP validation processes according to AFSPCI 10-260 and AFI 11-260.
- Accuosti, Capt. Nicholas, "Cislunar Space as a Warfighting Domain," SOS AUAR, 2025, 4 pgs.
- Adewunmi, Maj. Adekunbi H., "Evolving Deterrence: Preventing Destruction in Outer Space," AFGC thesis, 2025, 48 pgs.
- Adewunmi addresses this by emphasizing the need for the U.S. Space Force to transition away from vulnerable, "exquisite" legacy satellites toward hybrid, proliferated constellations that incorporate commercial capabilities like SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield. By adopting a posture of "Competitive Endurance" and integrated deterrence, she argues that the U.S. can ensure mission survival against PRC and Russian counterspace weapons through sheer resilience and the rapid replenishment of assets, which removes an adversary's advantage in launching a first strike.
- Baumeister, Maj. D. Harry, "Failure to Launch: Gray Zone Conflict in Space," AFGC thesis, 2026, 50 pgs.
- Baumeister directly applies Colonel John Boyd's OODA loop to space doctrine, identifying "dictating the tempo of operations" as a critical strategy to defeat gray zone threats. He notes that adversaries rely on slow, gradual operations ("salami-slicing") to build advantage over time without triggering a response. To counter this, he argues USSF doctrine must empower lower- and mid-level decision-makers to act quickly to deny adversaries the time they need to succeed, though he cautions that this bias for action must be properly bounded by doctrine to avoid spiraling military escalation.
- Beard, Maj. John E., "The Space Rings," ACSC AO 2025.
- Answered by Beard's strategic model for prioritizing centers of gravity (CoGs) in space warfare. By adapting Colonel John Warden's Five Rings framework, Beard systematically categorizes space CoGs into five functional layers. These layers consist of Decision Architecture and Command Integration, Space Industrial and Sustainment Base, Functional Infrastructure, User Community and Dependency Nodes, and Orbital Military Assets. Regarding "what to strike" in a contested space domain, Beard argues that the actual satellites in orbit (the fifth ring) are the assets of minimal strategic value. Instead of executing kinetic attacks on satellites that generate hazardous orbital debris, military planners should prioritize disrupting the interconnected command, industrial, or functional infrastructure segments that enable the satellites to function.
- Dawson, Maj. Amber M., "The Operational Art of Military Space Operations," SAASS thesis, 2021, 149 pgs.
- Emery, Lt. Col. Andrew J., "Beyond Space Warfare: Crime and Piracy in the Space Domain," SAASS thesis, 2018, 297 pgs.
- Goodman, Maj. Brian, "Offensive Dominance in Space," AF Fellows Paper (2024), subsequently published in Aether (Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2024): 66-80.
- Hannan, Maj. Abdul, "Preparing for the Future: Forging the Fundamentals of Space Superiority by Leveraging Lessons from Airpower," GCPME thesis, 2023, 64 pgs.
- Hans, Maj. Brian E., Maj. Christopher D. Jefferson and Maj. Joshua M. Wehrle, "Movement and Maneuver in Deep Space: A Framework to Leverage Advanced Propulsion," ACSC paper, 2017.
- Jodice, Maj. Adam P., "United States Space Combat Capability," ACSC Schriever Scholars Paper, 2020, 21 pgs.
- Luina, Nicholas A., "National Power: The Execution of Spacepower through All Instruments of Power," SAASS thesis, 2021, 92 pgs.
- Peery, Maj. Oliver B., "Cyber Warfare in Space," GCPME thesis, 2025, 38 pgs.
- Reddy, B. Karthik Narayan, "Reformulating the Center of Gravity from Airpower's Perspective: Understanding Airpower's Quest for Credible Operational Effect through Targeting," SAASS thesis, 2025.
- He explains that modern airpower must embrace transdomain integration, recognizing that aerial combat and precision targeting are increasingly dependent on space-based assets and cyber networks. Consequently, Reddy argues that the COG framework must be expanded beyond physical forces; critical systems like satellite communications and GPS must be evaluated as "critical requirements" or independent nodes of national power. To ensure the Joint Force can carry out offensive missions in contested environments, Reddy asserts that multi-domain operations merging space, cyber, and aerial assets must be tightly synchronized to strip away adversary defenses and expose the guarded vulnerabilities of heavily defended enemy COGs.
- Rees, Maj. Michael "Tonic" J., "Interstellar Jurisprudence: Legal Challenges in Applying Traditional Frameworks to Space and Cyber Warfare," GCPME paper, 2024, 46 pgs.
- Seal, Lt. Col. Jonathon S., "Doctrine Gap: Space Integration vs. Counterspace," AWC PSP, 2020, 27 pgs.
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- Huynh, Maj. Christopher, "AI on the Edge of Space: Securing Space Superiority and Avoiding Surprise in Orbit," AF Fellows paper, 2025, 25 pgs.
- Lynch, Lt. Col. Aaron, "Analogical Reasoning in Orbital Warfare," SAASS thesis, 2020, 80 pgs.