Black Skies

US Space Force Guardians assigned to the 4th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron’s Force Package 5 pose for a group photo following the recent completion of Black Skies 23-1 exercise at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo. The 4th EWS, assigned to Delta 3, trains, equips and mobilizes to employ space electromagnetic warfare capabilities. (US Air Force photo by 1st Lt. Charles Rivezzo)

WASHINGTON — The US Space Force is planning its first exercise dedicated to “orbital warfare,” called Red Skies, this summer, according to the head of the service’s Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM).

“How do we deal with an orbital warfare problem set? What are the challenges that faces in intelligence and command and control and operations?,” Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton said during an online seminar sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Wednesday.

Red Skies one of a series of exercises developed by STARCOM to train Guardians — in particular, those assigned to the Space Operations Command (SpOC), Bratton explained.

SpOC is the Space Force’s operational command, and its primary unit for undertaking orbital warfare is Delta 9. The Delta’s website defines that mission as “protect and defend operations and providing national decision authorities with response options to deter and, when necessary, defeat orbital threats.”

Bratton said that a central mission for STARCOM is assuring the readiness of those operational forces.

“We have the readiness word in our name; we need to make those forces ready before they go. We knew we needed a more tactical level experience to work through the specific readiness issues of each of the units, the crew force, within the SpOC. So the ‘Skies’ series was the solution,” he said.

STARCOM has held two of the exercises it calls Black Skies, focused on electronic warfare and defending US space assets from jamming attacks. The first was held last September; the second, the two-week-long Black Skies 23-1, was held earlier this year at Peterson SFB in Colorado. The plan is to have a third Black Skies in the fall.

Black Skies “brings the intelligence, cyber and the EW communities together against a complex problem set And as much as possible we do live activities, and so live fire electromagnetic warfare,” Bratton said.

In the run up to the upcoming Red Skies, he noted, STARCOM did an experiment where “orbital warfare and aggressor units” flew the Tetra-1 experimental spacecraft, built by Millennium Space Systems, based in an orbit above the altitudes normally used by operational satellites. The satellite undertook maneuvers simulating a close approach to another satellite, known as rendezvous and proximity operations or RPO, Bratton explained, and participants had to consider the implications.

“So, if someone is approaching it with a spacecraft, what do you do about it?” he said. On the flip side, for operators that might be controlling US satellites using RPO to, say, keep eyes on adversary satellites, “how do you conduct these activities safely?”

The results of that experiment are being folded into planning for Red Skies, he said.

In addition, Bratton noted that STARCOM will hold “industry days” on June 22-23 in Colorado Springs to solicit industry inputs in how to fill “capability gaps” as the command works towards establishing a National Space Test and Training Complex. One of the things STARCOM hopes to find out is what “threat surrogates” vendors might be able to supply for Red Skies.

Next year, the command will hold the third iteration of the Skies series, called Blue Skies, focused on cyber warfare, Bratton said. That exercise will be done with SpOC’s Delta 6 and will be focused on defending US space systems against adversary cyberattack.

However, he noted that the parameters for Blue Skies haven’t yet been fully fleshed out.

“Blue Skies is still far out. We haven’t done a ton of work,” he said, adding that a key is working with US Cyber Command and the Space Force cyber units to get a “range environment” fully stood up to replicate actual operations and allow practice against cyber threats.