ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Liberaiders from the 461st Air Control Wing demonstrated dynamic battle management during the week-long exercise Virtual Flag: Mission Command, Feb 26 – March 1, 2024.
The multi-unit crew was also comprised of Airmen from the 728th Battle Management Control Squadron, the 330th Combat Training Squadron and the 12th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. In addition, the 726th Air Control Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, provided command and control and White Force support to over seven joint units directly from the Distributed Mission Operations Center located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
"The DMOC's virtual simulation provided us the opportunity to test our (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) in a low-risk environment, to accomplish training to certify and upgrade our members, and allowed us to execute at a level where we could put (Battle Management Command and Control) advanced concepts into action,” said Maj. Aurea Pomales Martínez, 461st ACW, Instructor Air Battle manager.
Maj. Luis Hidalgo, 461st ACW, Evaluator Mission commander said the virtual simulation reinforced the problem the Air Force faces in today’s threat environment.
“Focusing on mission command, units had to truly understand what mission type orders, authorities, and responsibilities meant in a degraded environment while testing the concept of distributed control, with units only receiving limited information prior to executing the plan,” he continued. “On top of that, our crews were executing crew swaps each day, meaning everyone had to be on the same page with the current situation and upcoming events. To say it was challenging is an understatement, but our crews did an outstanding job and I believe we captured some good lessons learned to be able to apply in our training back home station.”
The DMOC’s simulated scenarios were engineered based on current U.S. Indo-Pacific Command adversarial threats and provided an avenue for geographically separated units to connect and accomplish training at the joint/combined level.