The Army for the first time has invited the Air Force to participate in its annual “Unified Endeavor” exercise at Ft. Drum, N.Y. The goal is to talk airpower capabilities with senior members of the 10th Mountain Division, which shortly will rotate into the lead force of Joint Task Force-76 in Afghanistan. Airmen provided the training work for coordination with the theater air and space component. The lessons covered items ranging from working with USAF’s tactical air control party airmen in the field all the way up to coordinating major ground movements with the theater’s air operations center.
The Space Force plans to expand the scope of its data transport constellation in the next few years, kick-starting a competition to bring on new commercial capabilities and procuring nine launches in fiscal 2027 to support the hybrid satellite communications network.