From SAC to Space Force: Analyzing the Evolution of U.S. Military Space Organizations

Space underpins American national security and affects everyday Americans’ lives on an enormous scale. However, as its importance grew over the past 20 years, U.S. space assets remained vulnerable to threats. This thesis aims to determine distinct causes of U.S. space vulnerability by analyzing the history of U.S. military space organizations. Specifically, it examines the 2002 merger between two U.S. Department of Defense combatant commands: U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) and U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM). The thesis aims
to answer two sets of questions concerning the organizational evolution of the U.S. military in space. First, what factors led to the decision to merge SPACECOM with STRATCOM? Would SPACECOM be better equipped to tackle new threats facing space if it had the opportunity, from its inception, to solely focus on space-related issues? And second, what sparked the creation of the U.S. Space Force? What problem, or set of problems, does the U.S. government hope the U.S. Space Force will solve? Through a combination of historical analysis and expert interviews, this thesis suggests that two events in 2001—the September 11 terror attacks (9/11) and the publishing of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR)—directly influenced the decision to merge SPACECOM with STRATCOM, as the U.S. government’s national security priority shifted toward fighting terrorism. It then analyzes the implementation of the merger, as well as emerging threats in the early 2000s, to explain the rationale for re-establishing SPACECOM and creating the U.S. Space Force in 2019. The thesis concludes that while the decision to merge SPACECOM with STRATCOM did leave the U.S. vulnerable to threats in years following the merger, it was a natural reaction to the national security landscape facing the U.S. government in 2002.