The United States Space Force is placing top priority on training its Guardians for fighting and winning in the cosmic environment, employing a strategic blend of advanced virtual environments and, in the future, a dedicated fleet of live training satellites. This move is crucial in an increasingly contested domain where threats are constantly evolving.
Dual Strategic Imperatives: Orbital Warfare and Joint Integration
General Gregory Gagnon, recently appointed commander of Combat Forces Command, stated his focus for the next two years will be on two major training objectives. The first targets „orbital warfare,” a pressing necessity given that „adversaries desire to attack us in space from space, and they’re already practicing.” The second priority is the integration of the Space Force with the Navy, Air Force, and Army. The goal is to develop a comprehensive ability to support each other and acknowledge that „warfighting in space will be part of the fight,” necessitating strategic coordination of resources and objectives for the joint force’s collective victory.
A New Command for an Era of Space Warfare
General Gagnon’s appointment in September 2025 coincided with the rebranding of the former Space Operations Command (SpOC) to Combat Forces Command. The mission of this new structure, according to Gagnon, is „to build those forces, forces that are combat ready and ready to win.” With a strong intelligence background, General Gagnon intends to use his „personal time to help cyber [operators] assure our systems and our networks so that we are not at risk of any cyber vulnerabilities, because cyber is very important in space.”
From Gaps to Cutting-Edge Simulations: The Challenges of Virtual Training
Despite „significant money” spent on the Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI), General Gagnon lamented that currently, „40 percent of my units do not have a realistic trainer in order to practice on them.” However, notable progress is being made by Colonel Corey Klopstein, the OTTI program executive officer within Space Systems Command (SSC), in acquiring hardware, necessary communications links, and setting up a network operating system called Space Warfighter Operational Readiness Domain (SWORD). The essential next step is for industry „to come with their virtual and constructive models” of satellites and weapon systems that can be integrated into the synthetic environment.
The Secret Advantage of Synthetic Environments
The benefits of virtual training are manifold. The National Space Intelligence Center in Dayton, Ohio, has worked intensively for about two and a half years „building models of the adversaries threats so that we can play red against blue,” with concrete results expected over the next year and a half. A robust virtual environment allows Guardians to exercise real-world scenarios against an adversary without that adversary being able to observe. „I don’t want him to know my moves, because I want my moves to win,” Gagnon explained. Furthermore, virtual environments allow for practicing capabilities like jamming without disrupting commercial space operations.
Live Satellites for Real Training: An Urgent Need
Despite advancements in simulations, General Gagnon emphasized the importance of live training on actual satellites. „The Space Force we have is not the Space Force we need,” he declared, advocating for the acquisition of an „entire set of training satellites” dedicated to this purpose. While some level of training with live satellites already exists – often using „hand-me-downs” or repurposed end-of-life operational satellites – it is limited and does not allow for full replication of complex scenarios.
STARCOM and the Vision of Space Ranges
Space Operations and Training Command (STARCOM), led by General James Smith and Chief Master Sergeant Karmann-Monique Pogue, is responsible for preparing troops for Combat Forces Command. „We take the kit, the equipment from SSC, we take the Guardians off the street as civilians or whatever, we merge all that together, and we deliver combat credible space forces to Gen. Gagnon. And then he trains them in a specific weapon system, makes them ready, and then hands them off to the combat command commander,” Smith explained.
To achieve the necessary level of realism, System Delta 81, the unit responsible for developing training equipment under the OTTI office and led by Colonel Klopstein, is actively building three distinct training ranges for STARCOM: an „orbital range,” an „electronic warfare range,” and a „cyber range.” Each of these has a different developmental timeline, but all are being stood up incrementally, adding essential capabilities to prepare Guardians not only for known scenarios but also for „the unknown,” as CSM Pogue highlighted. Until these live ranges are on orbit, much of the training will continue to be conducted in the virtual space.
