Army After Next Space Games
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command
Force Development and Integration Center 12 Feb 98
Looking at the Key Role "Space" Will Play in Future Battles

From Jan. 28 to Feb. 5, 1998, in Colorado Springs, Colo., the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command co-hosted Army After Next Space Game Two with the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. In the game, the Army studied the effects of space-based capabilities in 2021 in a major regional contingency.

The game followed AAN Space Game One held last June at SMDC’s Advanced Research Center in Huntsville, Ala., which focused on what moves the United States could make in space before the outbreak of hostilities. Space Game Two focused on integration and synchronization of space support with a theater commander’s operations plan in preparation for the initiation of hostilities.

After two major wargames last winter and summer, the Army saw the need to get a more detailed picture of how its forces would fight in the future. The key finding from the first space game was that deterrence from space, by itself, was insufficient, and had to be done in conjunction with other actions including diplomacy and economic sanctions.

Space Game Two looked at how space operations will be integrated and synchronized into a cohesive theater campaign that establishes what the services call "mission assurance," the ability to maintain an expected level of force capabilities, to include space-based services. Specifically, the game:

• Examined how space warfighting concepts and technologies are to be synchronized with theater campaign plans;
• Identified the operational and organizational issues when integrating space with a warfighting commander-in-chief’s staff;
• Determined the constraints on space-based capabilities which adversely affect theater operations;
• Considered what policies will ensure effective space operations in 2021;
• Further examined the impact of the proliferation of commercial space activities on warfare in 2021;
• Explored what U.S. space order of battle will support multiple contingencies in 2021; and
• Continued to identify the asymmetric threats that the U.S. should expect from a major competitor.

• The Army now has a better understanding of the timelines for terrestrial and space activities and how to synchronize them;
• The Army has a better understanding of the role of space support to military operations, particularly the relationship of the military with commercial space activities; and,
• The Army has learned how space systems and non-space systems can complement each other, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles complementing satellites.

For more information, please contact Mike Biddle at (703)607-2039.