A new US military wargame series began by simulating a nuclear weapon in orbit

The United States Space Command is calling on private sector companies to engage in a pioneering series of classified wargames aimed at addressing potential threats in outer space. The inaugural exercise focused on a hypothetical scenario involving a nuclear explosion in orbit, a situation that raises significant concerns about global security. During a recent forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, General Stephen Whiting, the head of Space Command, elaborated on the series, named Apollo Insight. This initiative aims to merge military and commercial insights to effectively respond to simulated threats in the vast expanse of space. Space Command, which oversees military operations in space and functions independently from the Space Force, plans to execute four tabletop exercises under the Apollo Insight banner this year. "We’ve already conducted one exercise," Whiting revealed. "It centered on a nuclear payload in orbit, a scenario that we hope to avoid as it would breach the Outer Space Treaty. We convened around 60 companies at a classified level to discuss the implications of such a detonation and gather innovative ideas on leveraging existing and future technologies to enhance our capabilities." The wargame scenario represented a 'notional worst-case situation' and included the participation of allied nations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. While the details remain classified, Space Command emphasized that discussions spanned various critical issues, including the necessity for domain awareness to detect and characterize threats, thereby ensuring the superiority of US and allied operations in space.