Air Combat Command’s 5th Combat Communications Group at Robins AFB, Ga., hosted the fourth United Architecture, a two-week exercise in which USAF and Royal Air Force combat communicators join forces—this time in the field. Robins journalist Holly Birchfield reports that 38 5th CCG airmen and 32 airmen from RAF’s 3 Field Communications Squadron spent the last two weeks in Americus, Ga., where they put their jointly developed air operability manual to the test. Maj. Corey Ramsby, US exercise commander, said that last year the groups deployed to RAF Fairford, UK, where they “validated” techniques developed “in the lab,” but that this fourth exercise provided a “field environment, simulating a bare-base.”
Amid a high-profile recruiting crisis, Air Force leaders and experts have increasingly noted the challenging long-term trends the service will face in enticing young Americans to sign up—decreasing eligibility to serve, less propensity to do so, and less familiarity with the military. But while those same leaders say there’s no “silver…