The looming threat of a "space Pearl Harbor" entered the lexicon with the Rumsfeld Commission report in 2001, gained traction as a plot device in the fictional best-seller Ghost Fleet in 2016 and inspired a new approach to the U.S. military's space presence earlier this year.Never have U.S. military capabilities in space been so vital to operations, nor more vulnerable to compromise or attack. It was this conundrum that inspired the Defense Department's proposal for a vast new constellation architecture. Unveiled in April, the design delineates a plan to orbit a vast, multilayered satellite constellation within the next decade. "For a long time, I and many, many others have suggested that what we have in space today is reminiscent of a bunch of battleships parked in Pearl Harbor right before World War II," Mike Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering said at a recent industry day. But actively defending military and intelligence satellites from electronic or physical attack "is a losing game," he said. "It, at most, buys you time."
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