With space emerging as a warfighting domain, we need to improve our understanding of capabilities and systems in and beyond orbit can be protected from emerging threats and adversaries. Aerospace recently conducted an unclassified internal wargame to simulate threat scenarios and better prepare for a full spectrum of responses and operations.

“Space warfighting is not only about defending individual satellites. It’s about ensuring our entire range of space-based capabilities continue to support the objectives of all US and allied joint forces in the face of attacks. And denying our adversaries the same … it’s about space superiority to win the war,” said Dr. Robert Stevens, Director of the Model Based Systems Engineering Department and lead for Aerospace’s Concurrent Design Center (CDC).

Wargaming is essential for operators and warfighters to learn tactical, operational, and strategic decision making informed by real world data. While terrestrial wargaming has a long history across the nation’s military, the ability to practice warfare in space is still a relatively new area.

One of the main objectives of this specific space wargame (called SECTOR, for Space Environment for Combat – Tactical and Operational Readiness) was to expose players to a large-scale conflict in space and show the end effects, or how outcomes of the space battle impact the success or failure of the Joint Forces.

This allows them to be in the commander’s seat, working as a team to make decisions to defend critical assets on the ground and in space while simultaneously attacking the adversary. Wargames typically include real-world data with fictional assets. In this case CDC, SECTOR and IDAS, created assets, such as sensor satellites, jammers, ground stations, and communication satellites for players to utilize in their strategy.

“We also recognize that the adversary isn’t going to come at us with just one type of attack," said Dr Stevens. "And we won’t attack or defend with just one type as well. The fight will involve kinetic weapons, electronic attack, cyberwarfare, directed energy, and other methods. Halfway through our game, one team lost an aircraft carrier partially due to reduced space-based missile warning capabilities."

The CDC created the scenario and set the challenge for their engineers, with three teams across Chantilly, Colorado Springs and El Segundo designated Red, Blue and White. With a call of "Fight’s On" — by tradition the phrase used to start wargames — the teams battled to protect their capabilities. After the game concluded, the teams received assessment metrics that provided scores and determined the winner.

Outcomes of wargames like this could help inform adjudicators in large-scale global wargames, like those played at Naval War College.

“The value of practicing warfare lies in discipline, resilience, and good tactical judgement,” said Dr. Rick Vazquez, Systems Director in Aerospace’s Defense Systems Group. “Space, as the newest warfighting domain, lags traditional domains like land, sea, and air in terms of wargaming capabilities. It poses unique challenges due its vastness, complexity of technology and nations involved. As the dependency on space continues to grow, developing robust wargaming capabilities for space is imperative to anticipate and mitigate potential threats.”