Page 57: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2020)

The Final Word © Pakpoom/AdobeStock

Over Watch

Advancing NATO’s maritime situational awareness & understanding resiliency through commercially available space-based assets.

By Captain Todd Bonnar t is hard to get past en into orbit for a rendezvous with the Reconnaissance (ISR)”. A celestial van- headlines painting International Space Station. Of national tage point, as the ultimate high ground the portrait of a world signi? cance was the fact that the Crew for overwatch, offers signi? cant poten- besieged physically Dragon launched astronauts from U.S. tial for satisfying a fundamental tenet

I and economically by soil for the ? rst time since the last Shut- of naval warfare - Maritime Situational a medical crisis on a tle ? ight in 2011. The real point to hone, Awareness (MDA). Having a clear pic- global scale and a nation that has turned however, is that the SpaceX Crew Drag- ture and access to timely, relevant infor- the national spotlight onto the funda- on spacecraft is the ? rst to be designed, mation is essential as it enables the early mentals of its constitutional democracy, built and launched to space by a private identi? cation of potential threats and including the persistence of racism, the entity. That’s an accomplishment only enhances appropriate responses. Infor- right to protest and the character of lo- three nations — the U.S., Russia and mation superiority through high quality cal and national security forces in the China — have achieved previously. “A MSA enables naval warfare command-

United States. Lost in this this mass me- private company has just achieved a feat ers at all levels – tactical through stra- dia reporting is a story worth a more de- that heretofore has only been achieved tegic – to get inside their adversaries’ tailed examination for it may portend a by nation-states.” As CNBC reported it, OODA Loop. revolutionary change for modern naval “The launch unlocks the possibility of a The OODA loop was a tool developed warfare – advancing NATO’s maritime new era of sustained, private, commer- by military strategist John Boyd to ex- situational awareness and understanding cial activity in space.” plain how individuals and organizations resiliency through commercially avail- A very natural extension of the sig- can win in uncertain and chaotic envi- able space-based assets. ni? cance of CNBC’s statement is to ask ronments. The ability to get inside your

On Saturday, May 30, 2020, SpaceX’s “what impact will commercialization adversary’s decision cycle of Observe,

Crew Dragon spacecraft carried NASA have on space-based military applica- Orient, Decide, Act creates a Gordian astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnk- tions such as Intelligence, Surveillance, Knot of threatening events and gener- www.marinelink.com 57

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