The Air Force is poised to start its future capabilities wargame on Sunday. The biennial event, which will run about one week, is meant to examine warfighting scenarios circa 2028 to generate strategic-level insights that will help the service shape its future strategy, force structure, and acquisitions to deal with anticipated challenges in that timeframe, Col. Donald Drechsler, chief of the future concepts division on the Air Staff, told reporters Wednesday. Nearly 200 airmen, including about 20 general officers will participate as well as some Australian, British, and Canadian airmen. Drechsler said there will be two blue teams: one representing the Air Force of the future based on current planning, and one built around an alternative construct that features more irregular warfare, space, cyber, and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capability. They will go up against a red team in two scenarios: major combat operations and IW.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.