Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld organized a review of strategy, operations and acquisitions in which he shifted emphasis away from older technologies and onto emerging technologies in information warfare, precision-guided weaponry and space warfare.

The review recognized the centrality of space in all U.S. military operations and clearly regarded Space Command, the trans-service organization that coordinates and operates each of the other services' internal space commands, as a critical piece of the puzzle.

The administration appointed the commander in chief of Space Command (CINC Space) to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- not the only reason he was selected, but neither was it entirely incidental.

None of this made the Air Force very happy. In one of history's ironies, the same service that fought its way out of the clutches of the U.S. Army, making the reasonable case that the Air Force operated very differently than the Army, is absolutely committed to owning space.

In other words, the Air Force's Space Command, which represents the bulk of U.S. Space Command's capabilities and assets, is not going to be permitted to split off and form its own service, regardless of how different space-based operations are from air-based operations.

The concept of "aerospace power" used by the Air Force means that Space Command is not going to pull the same maneuver on the Air Force that the Air Force did on the Army. The issue is not current; it is a generation away.