I’d like to talk briefly about the idea in national defense of domains. While Information Technology people think of domains as website addresses, the national defense thinks of domains as one of 5 specific areas of warfare. As we all know from elementary history class, the Americans fighting the British used lanterns to tell if the British were coming by land or by sea.
http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/one-if-by-land-two-if-by-sea.html
Later, beginning with WWI, but really getting standardized in WWII, air became a domain for warfighting.
Most recently, we’ve added cyber. Most people accept that cyber is a real threat as far as warfighting domains.
Lastly, space. This is where many people aren’t fully convinced. However, it’s not a complicated concept. Our modern world relies heavily on satellite technology. Per the NASA website, “Satellites provide information about Earth’s clouds, oceans, land and air. They also can observe wildfires, volcanoes and smoke. All this information helps scientists predict weather and climate. It helps farmers know what crops to plant.”
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-satellite-k4.html
Most military strategists have been thinking in terms of “multidomain attacks” meaning coordinating an air attack with a land attack or a sea assault with an airborne operation. Think of D Day at Normandy – air, land and sea forces all converging on the same point. Then add the next two domains – cyber and space.
This note is just a little context for the announcement that happened 10 minutes ago on the defense dot gov website.
Disclaimer: these are my personal observations
35-Year Public Affairs & IT Professional 