In a dimly lit room tucked away in the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, defense contractors, members of the media and even some men and women in uniform are firing interceptors on a torrent of incoming enemy missiles. Outfitted with headsets and multiple screens, graphics and charts displaying the operational picture, they're all focused on one goal: stopping those missiles from hitting U.S. interests.

Over the course of a few days and roughly a dozen sessions, no teams are able to fend off 100 percent of the enemy fire. Los Angeles, New York, allied cities and command centers in the Pacific all suffer from long- or medium-range missile attacks.

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Missile Defense: C2, Sensors & Networks

Of course, this is a simulation exercise. The allies and enemies are made up, though modeled on the real world. It's the first time the Missile Defense Agency has run this unclassified version of its missile defense war game for the public at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here in mid-August.

"This is an opportunity to familiarize people with the war game, although this is an unclassified, publicly releasable version of the experience," said Col. Cory Anderton, director of warfighter operational support at MDA. "If this were the real world, the rigor would be multiplied by 20 or 50. But it gives you the appreciation for the warfighter experience and an idea of how we train."

In the war game, participants are assigned to different roles in the terminal, or third and final, phase of a missile's flight, which stretches from launch/boost through midcourse until it's hurtling toward its target in terminal. Some participants are firing on medium-range missiles, some on long-range; others are overseeing the command and control, directing action and managing fires supply. On the screens everyone tracks the missiles' paths on a globe graphic, as well as charts outlining targets and the status of the missiles, remaining supplies, what's in which operator's line of sight and more.

The war game is becoming increasingly critical as the future of the ballistic missile threat continues to grow. Missiles themselves are becoming cheaper and more accessible to more groups, leading to sustained proliferation.

"What we see today versus what we'll see 20 years from now, the capability of the threat will continue to increase. And that's what makes the Missile Defense Agency so critical – our role is to develop, test, field and integrate a multi-layer missile defense system that's responsible for protecting the homeland, forward-deployed forces and allies," Anderton said. "So this [demonstration] is similar to technology that we use to provide the warfighters a venue to train on, both for exercises and war games."

That technology currently is provided by Northrop Grumman, which works with MDA to create a practice space that best prepares current and future operators.

"When we're looking at any simulated environment, you want it to be as close to the reality as possible," said Dan Verwiel, Northrop Grumman vice president and general manager of integrated air and missile defense division. "You want to know how the network is going to operate, and you want a high-fidelity model so that they understand what comes across represents exactly what's in the mission and the weapons assets on the network."

There's more to the war game than just knowing when to press the 'launch' button. Whether it's a combatant commander, a defense industry CEO or a high-school student who might be the generation's missile defense operator helming the activity, the goal is to provide an end-to-end experience that prepares them for future scenarios.

"The context of the war game is that this is a very complex, complicated system – worldwide sensors, worldwide weapons, all aimed at a very common mission: a threat that's airborne," Verwiel said. "We have to use our technology to hit the exact target with an interceptor. So the war game is designed to allow us to look toward the future to identify what that threat might be 10 years out, and create a simulation or environment where we can establish what the [concept of operations] should be, what the tactics, techniques and procedures should be, based on what we think that threat will look like."

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