Military experts often refer to space as the ultimate high ground under the premise that placing systems in orbit provides
advantages consistent with the military doctrine of high ground. Although space provides the ultimate "observation
post", it has none of the other advantages traditionally associated with high ground. Army Field Manual (FM) 34-130
states the other advantages of holding key terrain: commanding avenues of approach, overcoming obstacles, and
affording cover and concealment as additional benefits of high ground. Yet systems in orbit incur none of these
additional advantages. Finally, international restrictions and reciprocity concerns limit the employment of weapons in
space nullifying many of the unique capability advantages that would otherwise support the "high ground" aspect of
space.
As the ultimate observation post, satellites provide a large quantity of vital data to military decision makers. This
massive amount of data needs to have as much context as possible to convert this data to useful knowledge. To use
space assets optimally, the military needs to learn from the past and make space and cyber products distributed and
tactical. It is absolutely essential to distribute the right information to the lowest level (tactical elements) of the
organization or the "boots on the ground" in a timely manner.
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