WHAT’S IN A NAME: Attack, defend, pursue — the Space Force’s new naming scheme foretells new era.

A for Attack: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to attack enemy forces or equipment.

B for Battle Management: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to direct and control friendly forces tactically engaged with an adversary.

C for Communications: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to support communication or data transport activities.

D for Defend: Systems, platforms, or vehicles that can protect friendly forces.

E for Electromagnetic Warfare: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to attack, protect, or exploit signals in the electromagnetic spectrum.

K for Support: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to ensure maintainability of space missions or payloads, including activities such as hosting, deploying, maintaining, sustaining, or servicing space vehicles or payloads while in orbit.

M for Meteorological: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to observe, record, or relay meteorological and oceanographic data.

N for Navigation Warfare: Systems, platforms, or vehicles that conduct navigation, positioning, and timing or navigation warfare activities.

P for Pursuit: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to intercept space targets in support of offensive and defensive operations.

R for Reconnaissance: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed to perform targeted collection of intelligence and/or threat indications and warning to answer specific military questions.

S for Surveillance: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed for persistent collection of intelligence and/or threat indications and warning on a target within a terrestrial, orbital, or cyber battlespace.

W for Warning and Tracking: Systems, platforms, or vehicles designed for the systematic observation of aerospace for the purpose of detecting, tracking, and characterizing terrestrial, air, and missile threats.

From there, things get complicated.