{"id":84286,"date":"2025-03-13T14:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/03\/13\/space-force-teaming-with-air-force-on-joint-simulation-environment\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:08:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:08:59","slug":"space-force-teaming-with-air-force-on-joint-simulation-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/2025\/03\/13\/space-force-teaming-with-air-force-on-joint-simulation-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force teaming with Air Force on Joint Simulation Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the past year, the Space Force has been working closely with the Air Force and Navy to learn from their experience developing an advanced, realistic training and testing environment for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter \u2014 with an eye on one day creating a similar capability for the space domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Col. Corey Klopstein, program executive officer for Operational Test and Training Infrastructure<\/a> at Space Systems Command, said his team started discussions last year with the Air Force\u2019s Advanced Training Capabilities Division about how the Space Force could be involved with the effort, known as the Joint Simulation Environment. The Space Force has since joined the JSE user group and is working with the program office to find ways to bring space capabilities into the simulation environment and eventually develop an advanced test and training capability of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Space Force needs to provide space effects to the joint warfighter to ensure the joint warfighter can validate in their training events and their exercises, whether or not they\u2019re going to be effective,\u201d Klopstein said March 5 at the Air Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado. \u201cThe Space Force also needs a high-fidelity environment to be able to validate not just our system performance in the threat environment that we anticipate, but also our tactics, and validate our tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JSE is typically associated with the F-35 because the Navy and Air Force developed it as a high-end test capability for the advanced fighter jet<\/a>. Though there\u2019s currently just one JSE system located at Patuxent Naval Air Station in Maryland, the program is weeks away from flipping the switch at a second site at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and plans to eventually host the capability at all of its F-35 bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the services expand their JSE footprint, the goal is for the system to become the premier combat training environment for U.S. and coalition partners. As part of that process, they\u2019re working with the Space Force to integrate simulated space capabilities and scenarios into the environment to help make training more representative. That could include things like space-enabled electronic warfare, navigation or communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klopstein described that work as \u201congoing,\u201d noting that the Space Force is funding an effort to develop standards and specifications to bring those capabilities to the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longer term, the Space Force is crafting a plan for an advanced simulation capability of its own. The service has training devices, but for the most part they\u2019re not interconnected, meaning that guardians assigned to different missions can\u2019t train together<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klopstein said the Space Force is in the process of creating distributed \u2014 or cross-mission \u2014 and high-end training systems. On the distributed side, it has been using a system called Swarm for large, tactical training exercises like Space Flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\t