Capabilities
In a recent episode of NucleCast, Brian Groft, Technical Program Analyst at SPA, joined host Adam Lowther to discuss the essential role of Advisory and Assistance Services within the nuclear enterprise and the evolving mission of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Look at almost any risk dashboard in a major program today. What do you see? A list of individual risks, each tagged by likelihood and consequence. Maybe a traffic-light matrix with red, yellow, and green squares. If it’s a Department of Defense program, chances are it follows the Risk, Issue, and Opportunity (RIO) Guide. And if it follows the RIO Guide, those risks are most likely categorized into one of three buckets: cost, schedule, or performance.
Imagine you’re driving to a destination on a foggy road. Instead of looking ahead, you focus on all the hazards around you and navigate with your rearview mirror. That’s not how anyone drives—but that’s how most organizations manage risk.
On October 14-15, 2025, I was privileged to attend the inaugural conference on “Wargaming as an Analytical and Training Tool in Military and Civilian Environment,” held at the General Tadeusz Kościuszko Military University of Land Forces (AWL) in Wrocław, Poland. In some ways, the genesis of the conference itself, along with my attendance, was the result of one of the fun quirks of the professional wargaming community: if you meet one member of the community, you’re only one or two degrees removed from knowing all of them.
Henry Heren, a senior instructor on the Mission Operations Directorate Enterprise Training (MODET) team at Systems Planning & Analysis, recently authored “Space Isn’t a Sanctuary—It’s a Battlefield. Time to Act Like It.” His article appears in Spacepower Magazine, a publication by the Space Force Association, an independent nonprofit dedicated to advocating for and supporting the U.S. Space Force.
The U.S. Space Force was founded to secure national interests in, from, and to space. These three prepositions are more than mission statements—they define how we compete in today’s high-stakes, “Space Race.” Yet the effectiveness of this mission depends not only on capability, but on integration.
Watch Tom Troyano talk about Nuclear Analyst Community
Get an Overview of SPA
Learn about Force Design
