The US National Space Policy released by the president in 2006 states that the US government should "develop space professionals." As an integral part of that endeavor, "AU-18, Space Primer", provides to the joint war fighter an unclassified resource for understanding the capabilities, organizations, and operations of space forces. This primer is a useful tool both for individuals who are not "space aware"-unacquainted with space capabilities, organizations, and operations-and for those who are "space aware," especially individuals associated with the space community, but not familiar with space capabilities, organizations, and operations outside their particular areas of expertise. It is your guide and your invitation to all the excitement and opportunity of space. Last published in 1993, this updated version of the Space Primer has been made possible by combined efforts of the Air Command and Staff College's academic year 2008 "Jointspacemindedness" and "Operational Space" research seminars, as well as select members of the academic year 2009 "Advanced Space" research seminar. Air university Press.

As political and military leaders ponder the future of space operations, the time has come to frame propositions regarding space power. Specifically, the author seeks to answer the question, "What is the nature of space power?" Two points come immediately to the forefront of this work. First, space power is different from airpower even though both share the vertical dimension of warfare. Second, space operations have matured to a point wherein valid and unique propositions regarding space power are identifiable. The objective of this work is to stimulate discussions and encourage those who do not yet understand or appreciate the nature of space power in modern warfare

To assist in moving intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) planning and execution forward from a fixed target and deliberate planning focus to one centered on emerging targets, the authors propose enhancing the collection management process with a strategies-to-tasks and utility framework. By linking collection targets to operational tasks, objectives, and the top-level commander's guidance with relative utilities, planning for the daily intelligence collections and real-time retasking for ad hoc ISR targets could be enhanced. When current tools are modified to provide this information, planners will be able to link collection targets to top-level objectives for better decision making and optimization of low-density, high-demand collection assets. Similarly, on the Air Operations Center (AOC) floor, intelligence officers will be better able to deal with time-sensitive, emerging targets by rapidly comparing the value of collecting an ad hoc collection with the value of collecting opportunities already planned. To handle the ISR demands posed by the rapidly changing battlefield of the future, this new, more-capable framework may be needed for making the best use of intelligence capabilities against emerging collection opportunities. Future research will focus on quantifying the advantages of this approach in comparison with the current process.

Lingel et al. present alternative methods to approach U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tasking and the command and control processes and assess the outcome of different information-collection strategies. They develop new assessment techniques and operational strategies to improve the use of ISR assets in dynamic environments.

Dr. Greg Zacharias, former Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force (2015-18), explores next steps in autonomous systems (AS) development, fielding, and training. Rapid advances in AS development and artificial intelligence (AI) research will change how we think about machines, whether they are individual vehicle platforms or networked enterprises. The payoff will be considerable, affording the US military significant protection for aviators, greater effectiveness in employment, and unlimited opportunities for novel and disruptive concepts of operations. Autonomous Horizons: The Way Forward identifies issues and makes recommendations for the Air Force to take full advantage of this transformational technology.