Search

The last days of 2009 marked three important events in the history of American intelligence. The first is the fifth anniversary of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, the legislation creating the Director of National Intelligence, among other provisions. The second is the attempted destruction of an airliner approaching Detroit International Airport.

The proliferation of international space systems and an increase in the number of technologies that can physically threaten satellites has led the U.S. Defense Department to redefine space as a contested environment. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued a special area of emphasis, or SAE, applying this designation to space for the military community. The result will be a change in the way military personnel view space and incorporate its role in their training regimens.

An ongoing U.S. Navy realignment is uniting defense and intelligence tasks to permit missions based on both service-specific and national capabilities. The changes are accelerating the convergence of the service's command, control, communications, computers, information operations and space asset capabilities. This will enable component commanders to be more proactive in hunting down maritime threats.