By  Theresa Hitchens

Unlike the other military services, the Space Force faces a key conundrum in both testing new kit and training Guardians to operate current space systems: the inability to stake out an area of outer space for a live testing range.

“This is maybe one of the biggest technical challenges that we’re working through right now,” the head of Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM), Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton,  told reporters April 6 at the Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium.

The problem, as Bratton explained, is that under international law no nation can stake a claim over a region of space. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits claims of national sovereignty in outer space or on a celestial body such as the Moon. Thus, it simply isn’t possible to set up a testing and training range where, for example, live wargames could take place.

“In other domains — in air, land and sea — there, we carve out a piece of real estate,” Bratton said. For the Air Force, he noted, this includes Edwards AFB in California and Nellis AFB in Nevada “where we can fly new systems and test them out and understand the capabilities. There’s there’s no sovereignty and space and we’re not we’re not looking to impose that sort of model at all in the space domain.”

Thus, the future National Space Test and Training Complex (NSTTC), known in Guardian slang as “the range,” will not look a lot like traditional test and training ranges. Instead, Bratton explained, there will be a heavy reliance on the use of digital models and simulation, all on the ground.

Already, STARCOM is partnering with the Space Warfighting and Analysis Center (SWAC) as it builds digital models to guide future force design across the Space Force.