MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education hosted Air Force Space Command’s Schriever Wargame 2018 in October.
The two-week event was the largest-ever wargame hosted by LeMay Center and involved approximately 350 military and civilian experts exploring critical space and cyberspace issues, set in the year 2028. The event was attended by numerous general officers and dignitaries including the Secretary of the Air Force who received the closing brief.
“Wargames are invaluable for exploring extraordinarily complex issues and questions,” said Lt. Col. Josh Jensen, LeMay Center Wargaming Institute operations division chief. “They allow for structured human decision making within purpose-built scenarios with the goal of producing actionable data. Done right, wargames have the ability to uncover insights that would otherwise be undiscovered.”
Wargame participants came from more than 27 agencies around the country, as well as from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The diverse nature of participation created a unique challenge that the LeMay staff had to overcome. The LeMay Center Team headed by Sam Bolen and assisted by Ken Black were instrumental to the success of this record-setting event.
“This wargame would literally not have been possible without the tireless efforts of the wargaming team at Air University spearheading new processes that enabled hundreds of coalition partners to collaborate in a secure, fully-equipped wargaming environment,” said Jensen. “Bringing in representatives from the departments of State, Commerce, Transportation, Homeland Security and NASA, added further complexity to support this wargame.”
According to Air Force Space Command, the SW 18 scenario depicted a notional peer space and cyberspace competitor seeking to achieve strategic goals by exploiting those domains. It included a global scenario with the focus of effort towards the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility.
“We host up to 10 events a year to explore various concepts and challenges the Air Force and Department of Defense may face in the future,” said Col Scott “Chevy” Morrison, LeMay Center director of wargaming. “Wargaming enables the Air Force to develop effective, coordinated and interoperable air, space and cyberspace capabilities for the nation and international partners.”