Bringing the house area to life for Freedom Shield 26 > United States Space Force > Article Display

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AFNS) —

While hundreds of service members prepare throughout a number of warfighting domains throughout train Freedom Shield 26, a small group from U.S. Space Forces – Korea is working behind the scenes to deliver the house area to life. 

Freedom Shield 26 is a recurring train between the Republic of Korea and the United States, in collaboration with the United Nations Command, guaranteeing steady preparedness for navy forces on the Korean Peninsula. For SPACEFOR-KOR, the train is a chance to rehearse theater-relevant operations throughout all Space Mission Areas, stress-test procedures and sharpen the command’s skill to scale operations quickly. 

A core focus of Freedom Shield 26 is to offer a demanding coaching surroundings to reinforce fight readiness and response capabilities. Across the warfighting domains – floor, air, naval, house, cyber and knowledge – the house battle is being exercised digitally. 

In the months main as much as the train, the SPACEFOR-KOR S7 directorate, answerable for pressure growth, coaching and workout routines, labored to develop a sturdy house surroundings to satisfy the command’s aims. 

“Our primary objective is to ensure we’re rehearsing theater-relevant [operational plans],” stated U.S. Space Force Maj. Dillon Hagerty, SPACEFOR-KOR director of pressure growth. He added that extra aims embody validating the house operations planning cycle, testing command and management capabilities, and conducting partnership engagement. 

Achieving these aims was no simple job, with planning starting lengthy earlier than the train began. 

Building the situations underneath regular situations, the S7 directorate operates as a small four-person group answerable for intensive coordination throughout larger headquarters and supporting instructions, in addition to detailed planning and state of affairs growth. 

Hagerty defined the small group manages a heavy workload that features administration, logistics, personnel coordination, train planning and state of affairs design. 

To develop situations and simulated knowledge, the S7 directorate works with the Pacific Air Simulation Center at Osan Air Base, the Korean Battle Simulation Center at Camp Humphreys and different simulation facilities within the United States. These partnerships permit the group to create a extra sensible and responsive coaching surroundings for train members. 

“Our role here is a lot of coordination between the different simulation centers to make the space scenario work for these exercises as realistically as possible,” stated U.S. Space Force 1st Lt. Roman Ocampo, SPACEFOR-KOR chief of train growth. 

During train execution, the directorate transforms right into a 24-hour operation referred to as the Exercise Control Group, or ECG. This group scales to greater than a dozen members, together with subject material specialists from throughout the Space Mission Areas and liaisons from the Republic of Korea Air Force’s Space Operations Group. 

Together, the ECG executes and manages the situations that drive the house portion of the train ahead. 

“We are the controllers for the entire space domain for the exercise,” Ocampo stated. 

That accountability spans a variety of Space Mission Areas, together with Missile Warning, Space Domain Awareness and situations involving degraded space-enabled results that help mixed operations. By constructing these mission areas into the train, the group creates a extra sensible contested surroundings for members. 

 Much of the group’s operations happen on the Pacific Air Simulation Center, the one middle within the Korean theater of operations that gives built-in air and house simulation, wargaming capabilities and steady simulated knowledge. Inside the middle, the space-focused ECG works alongside its air part counterparts to synchronize efforts and combine house operations. 

But the group’s function doesn’t finish as soon as a state of affairs is launched. 

“One of the big jobs that the [exercise control group] has to perform is monitoring player actions in order to keep the scenario running,” Ocampo stated, explaining how U.S. members observe U.S. forces actions whereas Republic of Korea counterparts monitor how ROK forces are responding to the house situations launched within the train. 

As the train unfolds, the ECG assesses how U.S. and Republic of Korea forces reply to simulated adversary threats, then adjusts the state of affairs to permit members to see the influence of their actions. This course of sharpens shared understanding, improves coordination and reinforces how house operations help mixed protection within the Korean theater of operations. 

As SPACEFOR-KOR continues to develop its function in Freedom Shield, the command is making the house area a extra operationally related a part of the coaching surroundings. For the S7 group, which means constantly increasing the complexity, realism and scope of the house battle so mixed forces are higher ready for real-world operations on the Korean Peninsula. In that effort, the house area isn’t just represented however totally built-in into the battle.