May 23, 2017
By Greg Walters
U.S. Army Spc. Angel Mendoza, assigned as a space aggressor operator to the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, secures a helical antenna to a gravel pad Aug. 8, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
In a large, (click here) tin-roofed warehouse near Colorado's Rocky Mountains, members of a team of modern space warriors spend their days hatching plots to defeat the US military in extraterrestrial combat.
They're called Space Aggressors.
Their job is to act like the enemy during mock space battles to help U.S. units prepare for a conflict that may one day extend into the cosmos.
"We play the bad guys," said Captain Christopher Barnes, chief of training for the 26th Space Aggressor Squadron. "Our job is to not only understand 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.
