At the beginning Operation Desert Shield, the defensive and preparation phase of the war, military communications satellites only provided support for an American administrative unit in Bahrain and two training groups in Saudi Arabia, and no weather, navigation, early warning, or remote sensing support was typically tasked to United States Central Command, requiring time for space forces to be assigned to the region. Iraq possessed no space forces of its own, contracting satellite communications with Intelsat, Inmarsat, and Arabsat, however its military leadership made no effort to integrate space into its military planning.