Visit the 11th Air Force Air Operations Center during the exercise, and next to the mission directors and flight planners you'll find members of the Air Force Space Support Team. Mark T. Bradley. We show them what space can do, how it works and how they can use it. Space assets can do some impressive things. With the aid of satellite imagery, pilots can sit at a computer terminal and actually fly a mission plan before they ever leave the ground.
Commanders can use near real-time weather pictures to make last minute targeting decisions.
Planners can use the latest space intelligence information to determine exactly where anti-aircraft threat areas are located. The list of possibilities is almost endless. But having the capability and using it are two different things, and education is the key to bridging the gap. The space support team's primary role at Cope Thunder is education. Our ultimate goal is to make space an essential element in everything we do.