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 wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.