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iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Man Accused of Murder Asks To Show Penis To Jury in Oral-sex Choking Defense
By Greg Walters, Seeker
In a large, tin-roofed warehouse near Colorado's Rocky Mountains, mem- bers of a team of modern space war- riors spend their days hatching plots to defeat the US mil- itary in extraterrestri- al combat.
They're called Space Aggressors.
Their job is to act like the enemy dur- ing mock space bat- tles to help US units prepare for a conflict that may one day extend into the cos- mos.
In a large, tin-roofed warehouse near Colorado's Rocky Mountains, mem- bers of a team of modern space war- riors spend their days hatching plots to defeat the US mil- itary in extraterrestri- al combat.
They're called Space Aggressors.
Their job is to act like the enemy dur- ing mock space bat- tles to help US units prepare for a conflict that may one day extend into the cos- mos.
"We play the bad guys," said Captain Christopher Barnes, chief of training for the 26th Space Aggressor
Squadron. "Our job is to not only under- stand the different types of threats and potential enemies, but also to be able to portray them and replicate them for the good guys, our Air Force."
The 26th and 527th Space Aggressor Squadrons are headquartered in a two-story warehouse at Colorado's Schriever Air Force Base, stocked with advanced radio and satellite equipment and nicknamed "the barn." Behind the building, antenna dishes trace the sky.
While attacks by the Space Aggressors are simulated, sen- ior US military and intelligence officials warn the threat in space is very real.
America relies heav- ily on space assets to project force
around the globe, from launching mis- siles to directing warships across the seas. Indeed, the Global Positioning System, or GPS, is actually a group of 31 high-orbiting satellites owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force.
Some worry that dis- rupting America's vast network of satellites and ground-based sys- tems could send US forces back to an antiquated era of targeting, communi- cations, and naviga- tion systems — deeply undercutting battlefield superiori- ty.
This spring, rhetoric from US military offi- cials about the need to bolster American defensive position, and even offensive capabilities, in space has ratcheted up
amid concern that Russia and China are rapidly develop- ing anti-satellite weapons.
"While we're not at war in space, I don't think we could say we're exactly at peace, either," Vice Admiral Charles Richard, Deputy Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, known as Stratcom, told a conference in Washington DC in March. "We must prepare for a conflict that extends into space."
In his remarks, Vice Admiral Richard pointed to press reports that "China is developing an arsenal of lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns, and high-pow- ered microwave weapons to neutral- ize America's intelli- gence, communica- tions, and naviga- tions satellites."
In April, Stratcom Commander General John Hyten told a Senate com- mittee hearing that in addition to bol- stering defenses, "we have to build an offensive capability to challenge their capabilities in space as well."
In that hearing, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked General Hyten to assess the threat to America's space
assets from coun- tries like Russia and China.
"It is significant and it is growing," Hyten replied. "You have to ask yourself why we have adversaries that are building weapons in space, weapons that can deploy into space, weapons that can jam our satellites, weapons that can jam GPS. Why are they building that entire infrastructure? It is not because they are interested in the peaceful use of outer space. It is because they are looking to threaten the United States."
The Space Aggressors aim to simulate attacks a real adversary might use, so US forces can practice over- coming them.
"We study threats to the space realm, either coming from space or based on land," said Captain Barnes. "If we can't directly replicate them with hardware, then we figure out if there's a software solution or some way we can train people to the point where they can fight through them, if they have to, in a con- flict."
One tactic Space Aggressors are known to employ is called "brute force
jamming," which involves sending powerful signals over satellite net- works to garble the original message.
Many details of their operations, however, remain secret.
"Some people think space is an Achilles heel for the US, and that if we were to lose our capabilities in space, we may not be able to fight through," said the Space Aggressors' Captain Barnes. "But the better we can train folks, the better they're going tobeabletogoout there and prove that despite one or another asset falling away, our guys on the ground, jointly, can still fight through and win the day."
In addition to wargaming in a con- tested space envi- ronment, US troops are also training to fight without access to space — in case one day they have to.
Six years ago, the Air Force held a study called "A Day Without Space" at the Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada that sought to replicate what would happen if American forces were deprived of satellite communica- tions and global positioning data.
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