Find out how the French Air and Space Force strengthened global space strategy during the Schriever Wargame 2025 exercise in the United States.
The Schriever Wargame 2025 space exercise: concept and challenges
The Schriever Wargame 2025 space exercise is a forward-looking wargame organized by the United States Space Force. It is a strategic simulation exercise that tests strategies and policies in a fictional scenario set ten years in the future, with a view to preparing for future space conflicts. The French Air and Space Force (AAE) took part in this exercise as part of France’s participation in the space exercise in the United States. The objective: to provide international training in space operations, in particular through the definition of rules of engagement, policy evaluation, and technological exploration.
The history of this strategic space simulation
The first Schriever Wargame dates back to 1998, initiated by the United States Air Force Space Command and then taken over by the United States Space Force. Since then, it has been held approximately every two years, immersing participants in scenarios more than a decade into the future to anticipate tomorrow’s conflicts. Previous editions in 2010 and 2019 dealt with threats from high-level competitors in the context of multi-domain conflicts.
French participation and partners
From August 10 to 21, 2025, Schriever Wargame 2025 took place at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, organized by the Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) and Space Delta 10. It brought together more than 350 participants from the US Department of Defense, industry, academia, and nine partner nations: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway (observer this year), and the United Kingdom. The French delegation included representatives from the Space Command (CDE), DGRIS, CNES, and industrial partners.
The objectives of the exercise
The exercise aimed to:
- Test strategies and policies in space conflict scenarios and prepare for future space conflicts.
- Explore emerging technologies (five “notional technologies”) to enhance allied interoperability, space defense and security, and international collaboration in space.
- Guide the design of future forces: guide acquisitions, space system design, and effort priorities.
- Strengthen interoperability and mutual trust among allies in the face of a growing threat in the space domain.
Resources deployed
The exercise was structured in several phases:
- A multilateral planning phase in 2024, including a Mid-Planning Conference and an Operational Planning Workshop (OPWS) in El Segundo, California, organized by the Aerospace Corporation. Participants prepared scenarios and refined execution orders, rules of engagement, and action plans.
- The final tabletop simulation game: a board wargame focused on a hypothetical conflict in the INDOPACOM zone, mobilizing “friendly forces,” “adversary,” and “other agencies” cells.
- The integration of five hypothetical conceptual technologies, focused on space domain awareness, communications, and rapid information sharing.
- The addition of a “special access cell” to disseminate sensitive information (classified programs) among allies, within a restricted framework, promoting the sharing of critical data while respecting classification levels.
Lessons learned
Several key lessons emerged:
- Strengthened trust between allies
Representatives from Australia, the UK, and Canada emphasized the importance of working side by side to align policies and capabilities, build trust, and clarify common processes. - Continuous adaptation in a dynamic environment
As the Canadian representative observed, the space domain evolves with each exercise, with new technologies and commercial players requiring constant adaptation. - Interoperability-oriented design
The futuristic technologies imagined are used to formulate what each nation would like to have tomorrow, guiding force acquisition and design choices. - Towards a shared governance objective
For the first time, the 2025 edition is still being designed unilaterally by the United States in terms of the game’s objectives. Starting in 2027, the partners will set the wargame’s objectives together, marking a transition to more cooperative governance. - Framework for sensitive exchanges
The special access cell has shown that it is possible to share classified information between allies, paving the way for better coordination on sensitive systems.
What this means for the future and international cooperation
The Schriever Wargame 2025 lays the foundations for more integrated space cooperation between allies:
- It promotes military projection in space by mobilizing advanced scenarios and emerging technologies.
- It supports the French military space strategy by providing rich feedback from allies.
- It promotes the simulation of space operations as a tool for training, doctrine, and decision-making.
- It confirms that future space defense and security rely on strategic cooperation in the space domain.
- It anticipates more allied, less US-centric governance, starting with the next Schriever Wargame in 2027.
- It helps structure an architecture for sharing sensitive data, which is essential for common security.
Through the Schriever Wargame 2025 space exercise, the French Air and Space Force has thus consolidated its participation in the space exercise, affirmed space cooperation between allies, and enriched international training in space operations. The experience provided an opportunity to test strategies, explore future technologies, and strengthen multinational cooperation mechanisms. This type of exercise resolutely prepares for future space conflicts and outlines a more structured international collaboration in space, based on trust, a common vision, and the collective development of objectives. Promising paths toward a shared space future are emerging, fueled by sincere, rigorous, and forward-looking exercises.
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