US Space Force practices 'orbital warfare' in largest-ever training event

The United States Space Force is carrying out its largest exercise yet, in order to demonstrate its preparedness for a conflict in space.

The exercise, known as Resolute Space 2025, will see over 700 Space Force Guardians train alongside international counterparts and personnel from the U.S. Joint Force, which consists of units from the other branches of the nation's military.

Resolute Space will see Space Force Guardians practice space-based capabilities such as "electromagnetic warfare, space domain awareness, orbital warfare, and navigational warfare," according to a Space Force statement. The exercise will combine live warfighting training (using real space-based assets) alongside virtual and "synthetic" environments, which combine real elements alongside simulated ones to provide a realistic training experience.

Space domain awareness, or SDA, refers to the service's ability to locate, identify and track objects in space. But the types of space-based and space-enabled warfare listed in the statement are still somewhat being refined and defined by the U.S. Space Force and other militaries.

Electromagnetic warfare consists of using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio frequencies, microwaves, visible light such as lasers, etc.) to disrupt or deny adversary spacecraft operations. Such operations include jamming spacecraft transmissions or using lasers to blind the optical sensors on spy satellites. Navigational warfare involves disrupting signals from systems like GPS or other position and timing services, while orbital warfare remains slightly less defined.

Space Force has conducted "simulated on-orbit combat training" in the past, but just what these exercises entailed isn't well known; Space Force and the U.S. Department of Defense reveal few details about their orbital arsenal and its capabilities.

In a 2022 exercise known as Space Flag 22-3, Space Force and joint personnel tested "complex astrodynamics while maneuvering and operating during simulated on-orbit combat engagements" in a "contested, degraded and operationally limited environment." What types of spacecraft might have been involved are unknown.

Despite the lack of details, Space Force is touting its preparedness to fight in space. In the statement about Resolute Space 2025, U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said the exercise will send a "clear message" that Space Force is "prepared to fight and win in space shoulder to shoulder with our joint and allied partners" and proves the service's commitment to "deliver peace through strength in the face of any challenge."

Resolute Space will be held as part of a larger training event that began on July 8 and involves the whole Department of the Air Force, under which the Space Force is organized.

That Department-Level Exercise, or DLE, combines Resolute Space with four other large-scale training events. Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink called the DLE the "first of its kind since the Cold War" in a Space Force statement.

The exercises will take place at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Peterson, Schriever, and Buckley Space Force Bases, and across locations in the Indo-Pacific region, an area where geopolitical tensions are being felt as China continues to bolster its military strength both on the ground and in space.