Publisher's Synopsis
Terms such as "operational art" and "operational level" are prevalent in US military space doctrine. However, no research exists that analyzes the applicability of operational art in the space domain. The use of operational terms in US military space doctrine is an ancestor of the operational theory the US Army developed for Cold War land warfare in Central Europe. Since its original codification, the lexicon migrated through US Army, US Air Force, and US Joint doctrine manuals and schools until it reached space doctrine. This monograph traces the historic evolution of operational theory prior to its implementation in Cold War US Army field manuals in order to distill essential attributes of operational art. The paper compares these attributes with the current context of US military space operations to determine if any of the attributes of operational art are applicable in the space domain.
