Lunar intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities: Shaping the future of military operations

Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) has historically been central to military power, enabling states to monitor adversaries and maintain deterrence across land, sea, air, and cyberspace. The advent of space-based ISR inaugurated a new era of global surveillance and, more recently, space was formally recognized as a warfighting domain. As human activity expands beyond Earth orbit, ISR is poised to extend into the cislunar environment and onto the Moon itself. Accordingly, this article examines the strategic and technical dimensions of prospective lunar ISR. It reviews potential operational challenges as well as potential solutions for a new generation of analysts.