Space Force Opens $981M Contract Pool to Fix Simulator Shortfall

The Space Force has established a $981 million contract pool to buy training capabilities after senior leaders acknowledged that Guardians across several key mission areas lack the simulators needed to practice their jobs. The move amounts to building the service's training infrastructure largely from scratch, nearly seven years after the branch was created.

The Space Force was stood up in December 2019. Despite that span of time, the people responsible for operating U.S. military space systems still do not have the basic simulators required for realistic training. The new contract pool is intended to close that gap.

Gen. Greg Gagnon, head of Space Force Combat Forces Command, acknowledged that a number of key mission areas face a serious lack of simulators. The problem, as he described it, spans multiple mission areas rather than a single system.

The $981 million pool is a training infrastructure build, not a satellite or launch program. Its size signals the scope of the deficiency the service is attempting to address. Rather than upgrading existing simulators, the effort centers on acquiring capabilities the force has largely gone without.

By the account of the officials involved, this is not a routine procurement action. It represents an acknowledgment that the force has been operating with a significant readiness gap, with Guardians in critical roles lacking the tools to train for their missions seven years after the service was established.

The Space Force is pursuing this training build while simultaneously working to field new satellites, new launch systems, and new doctrine. The service is developing those capabilities at the same time its training pipeline is still being constructed.