![]() Maritime Domain: The oceans, seas, bays, estuaries, islands, coastal areas, and the airspace above these, including the littorals.Īir Domain: The atmosphere, beginning at the Earth’s surface, extending to the altitude where its effects upon operations become negligible. Land Domain: The area of the Earth’s surface ending at the high-water mark and overlapping with the maritime domain in the landward segment of the littorals. Each has a clear definition, but together they lack internal consistency: This is also a source of confusion because outside of land, physical control of other domains has been based on transitory control-the ability to freely operate while limiting one’s adversaries’ ability to do so.Ībsent a fixed doctrinal definition of domain itself, only the standing definitions of the five currently assumed and recognized domains remain. The Air Force’s creation of AFCYBER-the US Air Force’s service-specific Cyber Command-proclaimed as much, stating fighting in the cyber domain means cyber domain dominance. The first definition was likely the basis for the use of the term in Joint Vision 2020, as “full spectrum dominance” was its central message. In math it is a “set of numbers that define a function.” In computing, it is a realm of administrative autonomy-from a website to a top-level domain (e.g. In law it is “omplete and absolute ownership of land…or a territory over which dominion is exercised.” A common alternative definition is a “sphere of knowledge, influence, or activity,” as in a domain of knowledge. As with most military terms, the word has clear non-military definitions that are instructive. How did we get to this point? Domains entered the lexicon with the 2000 publication of Joint Vision 2020, with information proposed as a new domain “as important as those conducted in the domains of sea, land, air, and space.” Before this point what we now know as domains were called dimensions, and “domain of warfare” itself was left undefined. In recent years, other concepts have been proposed as domains, to include the electromagnetic spectrum and human domains. But a lack of precise language clouds critical discussions of space and cyber, and even why we need to maintain some of the arrangement of the United States’ current services. ![]() ![]() and NATO military doctrine, defining the purpose for major military services of Western powers and shaping the lenses through which soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, and guardians understand the operating environment. Domains of Warfare: An Undefined Doctrinal Foundationĭomains of warfare sit at the core of U.S. It implies cyberspace should have an independent service-which is the wrong solution to the growing all-domain challenges of cyber operations. This is necessary not because denying cyberspace or information as a domain would diminish its importance, but because it is a flawed analogy that both undercuts the need for the current service structure and would treat cyber as a separate pillar of defense. This article proposes the United States re-focus the definition of domains of warfare on the four physical domains, which require distinct organizations and doctrines to effectively control and exploit, while elevating the parallel concept of functional multidomain operations such as Special Operations and Cyber Operations with fixed representation at the Undersecretary of Defense level. It’s time to re-think cyber to reflect the realities of modern war, and with it the broader lexicon of what constitutes domains and layers of warfare. ![]() The buzzwordification of the term domain has long passed the point of diminishing returns, and nowhere is that a greater hazard than with cyber operations. But classifying cyberspace as a domain is fatally flawed both because it obscures the purpose of recognizing the four physical domains, and because it unnecessarily puts cyber into too small a box. For ten years, the United States military has defined cyberspace as the fifth domain of war, equating it with the four physical domains of warfare as a core planning assumption.
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