Personnel from the UK Space Command have taken part in Exercise RED FLAG, a major military exercise run by the United States Air Force in Nevada.
The personnel from UK Space Command were integrated into the mission planning team leads. The UK Space Command team worked from the Air Operations Centre at Nellis Air Force Base, where they provided expertise in the space and cyber domains for the Exercise, alongside colleagues from the United States and Australia.
The UK Space Command personnel on Exercise RED FLAG were also assessed as part of their Qualified Space Instructor qualification. A 12-month course that provides Defence with the highest-qualified individuals with a deep expertise in space operations.
Squadron Leader Laura Ridley-Siddall is Officer Commanding space education at the Air & Space Warfare School, part of the Air & Space Warfare Centre at RAF Cranwell. She took part in Exercise RED FLAG as the Space Detachment Commander and the lead Space instructor and evaluator.
"Exercise RED FLAG is where we really put our Qualified Space Instructors Course students to the test. During the Exercise, the students undergo a week of specialist academic instruction and then three weeks of mission planning and execution. They typically work 15-hour days where they are the lead for the various space, cyber, electronic warfare, and information operations elements, and integrate their effects into the wider mission."
Squadron Leader Ridley-Siddall
Officer Commanding space education, Air & Space Warfare School
UK Space Command was formed on 1st April 2021. It is a Joint Command, staffed by personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force, as well as exchange officers from other nations, civil servants, and commercial partners. UK Space Command brings together three functions under a 2-star military Commander, Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey, including space operations, space workforce training and growth, and developing and delivering space equipment programmes.
Exercise RED FLAG is critical in producing Qualified Space Instructors as it provides them with the opportunities and experience, in an Air Operations Centre, to demonstrate their competence to become effective QSIs in a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment as part of a live-flying exercise."
Squadron Leader Ridley-Siddall
Officer Commanding space education, Air & Space Warfare School
