ORLANDO, Fla.—Guardians launched the the biggest exercise in Space Force history last week in Colorado even as Space Force leaders gathered here for the second annual Spacepower Conference.
Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna, said he was “blown away” by the start of Space Flag 25-1: “56 squadrons, 11 Deltas, 85 operational planners, 31 tactical planners, 111 ops crew members, 373 participants, all focused on the domain and the fight and integration and lessons learned,” Bentivegna said. “That’s exactly the environment our Guardians deserve.”
Maj. Gen. Timothy A. Sejba, commander of Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) has invested considerable time and money to develop that kind of high-level training environment.
“[It’s] certainly much differently than what we’ve been able to do in the past,” Sejba told reporters. “The environment that we’ve created, a digital environment where we’re able to bring units of action together—that level of training and exercising in the past would not have been to that scale,” he said.
“We’re bringing together a much larger presence from the service.”
The 370 or so participants represent about around 2.6 percent of the Space Force’s personnel, both military and civilian. A proportionate share of the Air Force would draw some 12,800 participants—or more than six times as many as took part in the latest Red Flag in July.
Large-scale exercises are part of a broader Department of the Air Force-wide emphasis on bigger exercises. Both the DAF and USSF want to challenge troops with more realistic, high-end training against challenging threats working as part of a bigger team, Sejba said.
“The CSO has also been very clear that training, and specifically training for [the Space Force Force Generation Model] SPAFORGEN. And readiness is really a top priority for him,” Sejba told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an exclusive interview.
Actually preparing the venues and opportunities for that training, however, is no small task. Saltzman has repeated over and over that he wants to improve the Space Force’s test and training infrastructure.
Sejba said improvements are needed because the risks in space have changed. “We’ve typically used what we call the standard space trainer,” Sejba said. “The SST … gave Guardians the ability to be able to practice their positions and do their day-to-day functions, but it didn’t necessarily bring a representative red threat into that environment.”
STARCOM officials have worked on developing Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI) to provide digital, cyber, and live training ranges that enable Guardians to be connected no matter where they are and to train together seamlessly. But OTTI has been more challenging to execute than first imagined, Sejba said.
“When we look at … the training infrastructure that we use today within the Air Force, a lot of that took decades to build,” he said. “We don’t have decades” now to develop the needed Space ranges. “We’re really trying to focus on what we think are the most important capabilities that are coming online,” he said, “and then making sure that we have range capabilities or training environments to be able to exercise and train to those most important things.”
Digital Ranges
To go fast and make good use of money already spent, STARCOM once more turned to Space Flag.
“We realized we’ve already invested an awful lot in a digital environment that we use for Space Flag,” Sejba said. “So if we could take that environment and now start to expand it, not only will it support Space Flag like it does today, it’s going to routinely be able to provide advanced training, both for each crew, but also as we do similar type exercises where we bring crews together in order to practice and execute some of these key mission threats.”
STARCOM has also begun adding simulated threats to existing SSTs and plugging those trainers into the Space Flag environment. More short-term improvements are coming, Sejba said. These include moving the Space Flag environment into the cloud, which will support distributed training at many locations.
Next up will be High-End Advanced Training, Tactics, and Testing (HEAT3), which will include a high-fidelity simulated environment to realistically replicate operations and threats. Sejba said no decisions have been made, but STARCOM is looking at the the joint simulation environment, a Navy-Air Force project that is gaining adherents in the Air Force. “We haven’t made a decision,” he said, citing JSE. “High-end testing leads to high end-training,” he said. “That could be an example of where we go in the future for some of that high-end test and training.”
Live Ranges
While simulators and digital ranges are important, STARCOM is still interested in establishing a live range on orbit where Guardians can practice flying actual satellites. That’s a more difficult proposition given the nature of the domain; airspace and land bases can be cordoned off, but orbital dynamics take place in the open. Still, Sejba said it’s possible.
“We’re really taking a look at what types of things that we’re going to want to be able to test on orbit,” he said. “And we’re making the right investments, especially from, how do we control that space, make sure things are safe, just like you would at any test range.”
Commercial space companies could help on that front, he added, by providing sensors for space domain awareness of the live range or satellites and personnel to act as “aggressors” just like the Air Force hires contractors to provide “Red Air” during exercises.