Space Delta 10 provides overview to MS&T audience

By Shane Klestinski, Associate Editor

 

Senior Space Force leaders outlined their mission and future plans during “U.S. Space Force Delta 10: Future Focus and Priorities for Wargaming,” an event hosted by Central Florida Tech Grove in Orlando, Florida, Jan. 16.

 

Carol Ann Logue, Central Florida Tech Grove director, introduced Space Force Col. Shannon Dasilva, Space Delta 10 (DEL 10) commander; Brian Raymond, DEL 10 deputy commander; and Space Force Chief Master Sgt. Ryan Brown, Del 10 senior enlisted leader.

 

The U.S. Space Force is the newest military service in the U.S. armed forces, established on Dec. 20, 2019. Operating under the Space Force’s Space Training Command (STARCOM), DEL 10 focuses on developing space doctrine and wargaming, as well as capturing lessons learned to prepare Guardians with training and readiness to accomplish their mission in space. DEL 10 is based at Patrick Space Force Base/Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it plays a significant role in testing technologies, validating requirements, and enhancing training for the evolving space domain.

 

After initial introductions, the panel described the Space Force’s broad organizational structure and the establishment of Space Futures Command (SFC), which will be the Space Force’s fourth institutional field command. Dasilva said it will be responsible for developing and validating concepts, experimentation, wargaming on a larger scale, and mission design analysis.

 

“[SFC will be] focused on forward-looking design processes,” Dasilva said. “You can think about it more as a focal point for the service to streamline our science and technology pipelines to better listen to our warfighters to better meet their needs and help maintain competitiveness in a great-power competition. [This will] make sure we have a way to develop operational concepts, evaluate them through wargaming or modeling and sim, and then put those inputs and what we’ve learned into an objective force design.”

 

Three centers will comprise the SFC. Silva said the Concepts and Technology Center (CTC) will define operational concepts. The Wargaming Center will validate the strategies and concepts developed by the CTC. The Space Warfighting Analysis Center will synthesize validated strategies, concepts and force options through mission area design into technical architectures that define the attributes of the objective force design. Dasilva clarified that DEL 10 would be “the wargaming center” as it moves into SFC.

 

Raymond said that future components of the Space Force’s mission that would involve using live/virtual/constructive (LVC) applications, especially as it moved from wargaming into field experimentation where units would be executing specific parts of an experiment.

 

“From a wargaming perspective, we’re already executing multiunit, live/virtual [training] in the exercise realm and working toward wargaming through some other efforts the Space Force is conducting,” Raymond said. “We have a combination [of training options], which will depend on what the question is, what the objectives are, and the outcomes that are expected. So, as we examine that, we may have a bunch of folks in a seminar to discuss and work through problem sets [that might involve] a full-service wargame with 300 participants… there’s a lot of factors that will determine where we go.”

 

The Space Force has had most of its people and assets based in Colorado since its inception. Brown answered a question during the talk that addressed the motivation that got DEL 10 and STARCOM to move its personnel (as well as their families) and operations to Florida.

 

“The modeling and simulation population here and the advancements made – in the Orlando area, specifically – and being the premiere ‘mod and sim’ area in the nation was a big, driving factor,” Brown said.

 

As DEL 10 continues moving to the Sunshine State, its leaders seek to build relationships with state, industry and academic representatives. Other near-term priorities include conducting research applications for wargaming and establishing a temporary wargaming center facility in Florida this year.

 

Dasilva noted that the Space Force not only has the responsibility of defending U.S. interests in space, but also for protecting the joint force on Earth.

 

“If we don’t integrate and figure out what [for example] the Navy needs to reduce their vulnerabilities, then we’re not doing our job,” Dasilva said. “We have to do multiservice wargaming.”

 

Raymond emphasized how training to operate in space presented different challenges from those experienced in previously established domains. The physics-based modeling required for space is quite different from other traditional, live training environments on Earth.

 

“The challenge with space is that we’re going to need some nascent technology or modeling and simulation, community-of-practice development, and visualization of the domain as well,” Raymond said. “There are difficult challenges in space that are very unique to that specific domain and in the application of technologies. The effort has got to be focused on protecting the men and women who are moving into harm’s way. Satellites don’t have parents, but every one of those soldiers and sailors have a mom and dad, and we have to be watching them – always above – and we’ve got to do that mission and do it right.”