In a large, 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 US units prepare for a conflict that may one day extend into the cosmos.

[...] While attacks by the Space Aggressors are simulated, senior US military and intelligence officials warn the threat in space is very real.

[...] Some worry that disrupting America's vast network of satellites and ground-based systems could send US forces back to an antiquated era of targeting, communications, and navigation systems — deeply undercutting battlefield superiority.

This spring, rhetoric from US military officials about the need to bolster American defensive position, and even offensive capabilities, in space has ratcheted up amid concern that Russia and China are rapidly developing anti-satellite weapons.

"While we're not at war in space, I don't think we could say we're exactly at peace, either," Vice Admiral Charles Richard, Deputy Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, known as Stratcom, told a conference in Washington DC in March. "We must prepare for a conflict that extends into space."

In his remarks, Vice Admiral Richard pointed to press reports that "China is developing an arsenal of lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns, and high-powered microwave weapons to neutralize America's intelligence, communications, and navigations satellites."