Air Forces Northern conducted its first individualized warfighter training event for homeland defense operations employing its Distributed Mission Operations technology late last month, according to Feb. 11 AFNORTH release. It was a goal set four and a half years ago, said Steve Boe, AFNORTH’s DMO program manager. “It’s a ground-breaking event for the AFNORTH DMO, and my hat’s off to them for making it happen,” he declared. The DMO team, which includes ARINC computer network and systems analysts, built “the infrastructure from the bottom up,” said D.W. Smith, ARINC’s senior manager on the effort. He explained, “All of the C2 systems—communications, chat systems, simulation network, models, and simulation target generators—had to be designed and integrated for a stand-alone training operation.” Air Force Reservist Col. Vincent Mancuso, who was the trainee in this premier event, called it a “fantastic tool” that enabled him to learn how to use the air and space operations center “to coordinate an effective response using our nation’s air defense alert assets,” particularly with its “progressively tougher operational challenges.”
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
