The Future of Space Wargaming: Conflicting or Reasonable with What's Ahead?

Space warfare has been a dream conquest for the few who are willing to fight and survive, since the early days of astronomy in the mid-16th to 17th centuries. Space is the most physically challenging of all the warfighting domains and operations in this domain are a strong contest between nations as well as others seeking to advance their interests spontaneously. The US Space Force was officially established by December 2019 to address these physical demands of the present age, also known as the Information or the Digital Age, for American defense against all odds of adversaries attempting to sabotage the way of life for all Americans. This research paper introduces the concept of space wargaming and how it can be applied for military applications of approaching or conducting space warfare through illustrative examples of definition, doctrine, principles of war, and rules of conduct and engagement across the board. The Space Force has been struggling to develop a consistent warfighting culture, in comparison of the other military branches across the board, so this paper also emphasizes on implementing joint-operations driven missions that are training or preparing to approach space warfare against the powerful odds of their adversaries, such as Russia and China. Next, this paper explains major principles both the DoD and the Armed Forces should abide by, in response to high senior officials and top ranked leaders from the national defense boards have declared space as a warfighting domain. It describes the major components of space wargaming, within the context of the following areas: mission planning and architecture, leadership and vision of the squadron space forces, economic support through relations with public-private institutions, joint command operations through various models or state of their architecture and historical context of wargaming in applications for modern society, especially the civilians (non-combatants of space warfare). A detailed analysis from both the military and civilian perspectives of space wargaming for a future space conflict is included throughout the paper to establish a non-bias, well-balanced approach of understanding and thoughts regarding the topic selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]