AirSea Battle has moved off the front pages, thanks in part to the burgeoning budget debate in Washington, but the leadership of the Air Force and Navy are going over the first set of the documents and consulting the regional commanders as well, Gen. Gary North, head of Pacific Air Forces, told reporters Tuesday afternoon at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. “The short answer is, we are involved,” North said, but he noted, too, that the concept is not tied to the Pacific, but a “natural evolutionary step to joint integration.” Both the Navy and Air Force are grappling with how you tie in existing equipment and platforms into a fifth generation environment, from day to day monitoring of a region to full up combat operations. Eventually, in addition to service integration, there will be an international integration component of ASB operations—as allies continue to modernize their own militaries and interoperability becomes even more paramount.
A recent seven-day exercise sent Air Force F-22s—along with other USAF aircraft—to austere, challenging environments across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Agile Reaper, taking place for the second time after its inaugural edition last year, featured 800 Airmen and 29 aircraft across five different locations from April 10-16, training…