Ahead of the New Frontier: from Naval Warfare Theory to Space Strategy. Part I

“All of mankind is interested in barring the road toward transforming space into an arena of military rivalries.”

Soviet Radio, 1966^[1]

Galactic warfare is usually compared to battles at sea. This comparison is generally fair. It should only be borne in mind that space is immeasurably poorer in stellar systems than the sea is in ocean islands. And among the stars, not everyone has valuable planets, especially bases and especially supply bases. Thus, the value of such stars is growing incredibly: the possession of the galaxy can be reduced to control over units of stellar systems. The subject of war in space is the planet. Inhabited planets. Base planets. And nothing else. No one will ever fight for emptiness. Numerous fiction, depicting battles in outer space, is completely groundless. “Galactic Wars: A Short Course” (1998)

Sergey Pereslegin

[1] John E. Hyten, ‘Space Mission Force: Developing Space Warfighters for Tomorrow’, US Air Force, 29 Jun 2016, p.1