The Air Force is poised to start its future capabilities wargame on Sunday. The biennial event, which will run about one week, is meant to examine warfighting scenarios circa 2028 to generate strategic-level insights that will help the service shape its future strategy, force structure, and acquisitions to deal with anticipated challenges in that timeframe, Col. Donald Drechsler, chief of the future concepts division on the Air Staff, told reporters Wednesday. Nearly 200 airmen, including about 20 general officers will participate as well as some Australian, British, and Canadian airmen. Drechsler said there will be two blue teams: one representing the Air Force of the future based on current planning, and one built around an alternative construct that features more irregular warfare, space, cyber, and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capability. They will go up against a red team in two scenarios: major combat operations and IW.
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.