Military Domains: Air, Land Sea and Now Cyberspace

Earlier this year, thousands of confidential files on an advanced U.S. fighter aircraft were stolen by hackers, illustrating one aspect of modern cyber warfare.

Now the Pentagon will create a Cyber Command to watch over and protect U.S. military computer systems, Reuters reports. The new command will be in charge of security for the Department of Defense computer network, but not other government or private systems.

The Washington Post had previously reported that the new command, when announced, would include the development of offensive cyber-weapons. Cyberspace is as much a "domain" as is air, land or sea, said Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command.

Add outer space to that list of domain, too.

Some analysts call orbiting weaponry (remember Ronald Reagan's Star Wars?) the ultimate high ground, a term familiar to any "Star Wars" fan as played out in the horrific scene in which Obi Wan Kenobi destroys Anakin with a light saber to the legs along a river of lava. Well, almost destroys.

Of course, owning the high ground means being there.

And this week we learned that the second of two long-delayed missile-tracking satellites is ready and awaiting launch. The Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites, expected to be sent up by the U.S. military later this year, "are designed to demonstrate the ability to track ballistic missiles in every stage of flight, something current U.S. space-based assets cannot do," Space News reports.

In The Water Cooler, Imaginova's Editorial Director Robert Roy Britt looks at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond. Find more in the archives and on Twitter.