This year’s joint expeditionary force experiment (JEFX 10-3) that kicks off April 12 at the Nevada Test and Training Range on Nellis AFB, Nev., will focus on validating innovations to plug existing capability gaps in prosecuting irregular warfare. Airmen and their participating Army and Navy brethren at Nellis and distributed sites across the continental US will evaluate 13 different initiatives during the 12-days of activities. Among them are remotely piloted aircraft that protect moving ground convoys, technology to prevent terrorists from downloading RPA video feeds, a new means of bringing together blue force tracking with Link 16, and novel airborne networks. JEFX is a Chief of Staff-directed event that combines live, virtual, and constructive forces to assess the viability of experimental initiatives. (Langley release) (For more, see the Air Force’s JEFX Web page.)
Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs and head of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, is pushing a “portfolio” approach to requirements and wants his position to have “more teeth” so he can enforce it.