- Space Training and Readiness Command completed the fourth iteration of the Chalkydri battle management wargame
- Participants from 18 organizations across the U.S. Space Force, Army and Air Force evaluated two battle management concepts
- The data gathered is intended to support senior Space Force leaders in refining future Space Force doctrine, force design and operational decision-making.
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Training and Readiness Command has completed Chalkydri IV, the latest installment in its ongoing battle management wargame campaign aimed at refining how the service plans, coordinates and executes operations in an increasingly contested space environment.
Learn how the U.S. Air Force is advancing battle management during the 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30. Hear insights from Col. John Ohlund, ABMS CFT lead, on meeting the decision-making demands of today’s warfighters. Save your seat now.
Held over more than a week in late June and early July at The Aerospace Corporation in Colorado Springs, Space Force said Thursday that the exercise connected Space Delta 10 and its 10th Force Development Squadron with military planners, operators and subject matter experts from 18 organizations across the joint force. Participants included representatives from the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force.
How Does Chalkydri IV Support Future Space Operations?
Chalkydri IV builds on previous iterations of the wargame series led by Delta 10. Earlier exercises assessed five initial battle management concepts before narrowing the focus to the two approaches examined during this year’s event.
The campaign is designed to evaluate how competing concepts perform across a range of complex operational challenges rather than a single scenario. Organizers use the results to identify operational strengths, expose capability gaps and develop recommendations for future doctrine, organizational design and force development.
Officials said participation from Army and Air Force personnel expanded the range of operational perspectives available during the exercise and reinforced the importance of integrating expertise from across the Department of War as the Space Force develops future operational concepts.
“For this fourth wargame, we were fortunate to have joint force experts from the Army and Air Force join as players and advisors,” Col. Shannon DaSilva, former commander of Delta 10. “The lessons and experience they brought alongside the sharp Guardian participants from various Combat Forces Command units leveled up both the quantitative and qualitative outputs we collected to inform future force design.”
What Comes Next for the Battle Management Initiative?
Data collected during Chalkydri IV will undergo additional analysis by Delta 10 to help inform future recommendations for senior Space Force leadership.
“We’re in the business of providing decision-quality wargaming data to inform senior leader decisions on how our nation will fight and win wars,” Lt. Col. Amber Dawson, commander of the 10th Force Development Squadron. “Chalkydri IV puts that skillset to the task of examining alternative concepts for space battle management.”
How Does Chalkydri IV Fit Into the Space Force’s Modernization Strategy?
Earlier this year, the Space Force awarded a $981 million National Test and Training Complex Integrated Training and Experimentation, or NITE Star, contract, expanding the service’s ability to conduct advanced testing, digital experimentation and operational training for space missions. The program is intended to support a distributed test and training architecture to help prepare space operators for contested scenarios.
Separately, the Air Force and Space Force have been developing the Multi-Agent Shared Hierarchical, or MASH, framework, an AI-enabled architecture to support collaboration across command and control functions. Officials have said the effort could accelerate data processing and decision-making.
