US airmen and Royal Australian Air Force members have finished their “computer game”—the first part of exercise Talisman Saber 2007—at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. The flying portion of the exercise takes place in two weeks in Cambra, Australia. When Col. Michael Boera, commander of the 613th Air Operations Center, referred to the week-long strategy-to-task exercise in the Pacific Air Forces Kenney Headquarters Air Operations Center as a big computer game in a Daily Report interview Wednesday, he indicated that with simulated input planners could see a “common operating picture” showing where all flying aircraft are located in the area of responsibility. The AOC exercise allowed the combined task force of US and Australian airmen to be certified for the full spectrum of potential missions. They had to strategize against generic crisis scenarios, in support of the commander of US 7th Fleet in Japan. The Australian airmen were fully integrated with American airmen, working in each of five divisions of the AOC: strategy, combat planning, combat operations, ISR, and air mobility. The Australians learned some of the Americans’ strategy-to-task processes, and, for the second half of Talisman Saber, from about June 19 to July 1, “we’ll operate using their strategy-to-task processes,” said Boera.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
