US Joint Forces Command has just concluded the first phase of Urban Resolve 2015—a three-phase experiment designed to simulate an urban battlespace in the year 2015. Air Force Col. Terry Kono with JFCOM says that the two-week first phase provided an opportunity to “really make the federation of models and [simulations] work. … It’s a focused environment, refined for the experiment.” The “environment” finds a US-led coalition confronting an adversary equipped with modern capabilities and operating in an urban setting. Phase 1 centered on exploiting human-intelligence collection methods and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance assets. Phase 2 runs in mid-September, followed by Phase 3 in late October.
With a little more than a week to go before the continuing resolution funding the federal government expires, lawmakers in Congress have still yet to reach an agreement on spending—and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is warning that dozens of programs and projects could be affected if no long-term agreement…