Space Force Tackles Near-Term Training Needs with an Eye Toward a High-Fidelity Range

While the Space Force is still making long-term plans to establish high-fidelity live and virtual test and training ranges in the coming years, officials say they’re also working with operators to identify near-term gaps and quickly field capabilities to address them.

For more than a year, Space Systems Command’s program executive Office for Operational Test and Training Infrastructure, led by Col. Corey Klopstein, has been working with Combat Forces Command to pinpoint near-term Space Force training needs and field systems and software to meet those needs, aiming for a 10- to 12-month turnaround time. The office put contracts in place to address the highest priority needs early this year and plans to move through a similar process to get after the remaining gaps, Klopstein told reporters Dec. 12. 

“It will evolve as requirements evolve and systems are delivered, but based on the information we have, we have some very good options on filling those gaps,” he said during a roundtable with reporters at the Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Fla. “We’re going to start working with the other PEOs and with industry to provide the solutions direct to the units so that they can meet their mission-essential tasks quicker and at speed to ensure that we’ve got the right type of readiness to the greatest extent possible.”

Space Systems Command declined to discuss specific Space Force training gaps, but a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that one of the initial focus areas has been on improving cyber training. SSC has been working with CFC and Space Training and Readiness Command to expand its cyber digital operational environment, first fielded in 2023. The team has helped increase that tempo from 20 exercises in 2024 to more than 50 in 2025. 

This focused effort to get after some of the most immediate training gaps has helped Klopstein and his team align their work with what operators need, he said. That “unity of effort” has also been helped by the creation of a new Systems Delta, SYD 81, in September, which pulls operators and acquirers into a single unit focused on OTTI. 

“The prioritization of what we deliver is driving unity of effort between the program office and the user because we know it’s imperative to deliver quickly,” Klopstein said. “I think the cooperation that we’ve had between the acquirer and the user has been better than any time I’ve seen in my career.”

Readiness is a top priority for Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman, who has championed OTTI during his tenure and called on the field commands to move quickly to prepare forces for a more contested space environment. 

“Our domain and all the traditions that govern it have changed so dramatically, so quickly,” Saltzman said during a Dec. 11 speech at the Spacepower Conference. “We must recognize that we can’t conquer these new challenges with old ways of thinking.”

Continuing to identify and address training gaps will be a top focus area for Klopstein and his team in the coming year—but so will putting in place the foundational contract mechanisms to build the higher-fidelity live and virtual ranges it will need in the future, he said. 

The service has been working since its inception to craft a roadmap and build out the infrastructure to support a physical range, the National Space Test and Training Complex. In September it released a draft request for proposals for an effort called the NSTTC Innovative Technology & Engineering—Space Test Range, or NITE-STAR. Klopstein said SSC will issue a final request early next year to establish a pool of vendors to help develop the NSTTC infrastructure.

The OTTI team is also working to make incremental upgrades to the digital training environment, the Space Warfighting Operational Readiness Domain, or SWORD. The Space Force uses SWORD for larger training exercises like Space Flag and is working to extend its availability so Guardians can have access to operationally realistic training from their home stations. The service plans to launch “pathfinder capability” in fiscal 2027 to demonstrate an initial cloud-based SWORD deployment. SSC will then build on that deployment to “mature, scale, and extend SWORD’s presence in the cloud” over the next five years, the spokesperson said.

Along with moving SWORD to the cloud, the Space Force is making incremental improvements to the digital range. It recently awarded a $27 million contract to an industry team led by Slingshot Aerospace to integrate more data sources, tools, and simulations into the environment. 

“OTTI plans to award several additional CSO-driven contracts in the coming months that augment SWORD’s capabilities across specific mission training areas and high-priority … needs,” the spokesperson said. “We will be looking to industry early and often to provide commercial solutions to meet test and training needs as they emerge.”