The annual Schriever Wargame introduced for 2016 a scenario where the United States and its allies lose access to credible Global Positioning System (GPS) information, according to an Air Force participant.
Air Force Col. Mike Angle, chief of training, weapons and tactics division at headquarters Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), told reporters May 26 the wargame had seven nations attempting to respond to this crisis: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He declined to say how the wargame participants responded to losing access to credible GPS information. 
Angle also said participants looked at launch, anti-satellite and even on-orbit anti-satellite threats in this year’s wargame. He said one of the key goals of the wargame is to see how the different nations are poised to respond to such threats. Angle said since participating nations are often “not on the same sheet of music,” or sometimes don’t have similar procedures in place to respond to certain threats, it was important to figure out what constituted a hostile act or perhaps an aggressive act.
“Obviously direct assent is an easy thing to figure out, but what are the implications of moving a satellite if you want to get out of the way of direct assent,” Angle said.
Jason Altchek, Schriever Wargames executive director, said the focus on coalition was new for the 2016 game. Altcheck said the best part about the 2016 wargame was working with coalition partners to determine that it’s better to work through differences in peacetime rather than a wartime environment.
The 2016 Schirever Wargame featured competition against a peer space and cyberspace competitor in the European command area of responsibility, just like the 2015 version. Air Force spokesman Andy Roake said in an email the details of the near-peer adversary in the game scenario are classified, but that it involved the contested, congested and competitive nature of the space domain played in the context of a regional and terrestrial problem.
U.S. commands and agencies participating in the 2016 wargame include: AFSPC, Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Naval Fleet Cyber Command, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Executive Agent for Space Staff, Air Combat Command (ACC), Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), U.S. European Command (EUCOM), U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the Intelligence Community (IC), NASA, and the departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Transportation (DOT), State and Commerce.
The wargame, held at Maxwell AFB, Ala., began May 19 and concluded May 26.