U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Andrew Cuevas (center), 510th Fighter Generation Squadron dedicated crew chief, performs a preflight inspection on an F-16 Fighting Falcon during exercise Astral Knight 23 Part 6 at Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania, on Aug. 22, 2023. AK23-6 is an Agile Combat Employment exercise focusing on concepts designed to make us more agile in our execution, more resilient in sustaining our capability, and more lethal in delivering our combat power from austere and remote locations. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Stephanie Longoria
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
Aircraft from every flying wing in U.S. Air Forces in Europe kicked off Astral Knight 23-6 late last week, the latest in a series of exercises across the continent focused on Agile Combat Employment.
F-16s, F-35s, KC-135s, and a C-130J are all flying in the exercise from forward operating bases in Finland and Lithuania, according to a USAFE release. From there, Airmen will participate in operations in the Arctic and Baltics, focusing on “proactive and reactive asset movements.”
The following wings are involved in the exercise:
48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, U.K.
31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy
52nd Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany
100th Air Refueling Wing, RAF Mildenhall, U.K.
86th Airlift Wing, Ramstein Air Base, Germany
435th Air Ground Operations Wing, Ramstein Air Base, Germany
At Rovaniemi Air Base, Finland, there are:
F-16s from Spangdahlem
a C-130J from Ramstein
a KC-135 from Mildenhall
F/A-18s from the Finnish Air Force
At Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania, there are:
F-35s from Lakenheath
F-16s from Aviano
a KC-135 from Mildenhall
According to U.S. European Command, forces from Sweden and Latvia will participate as well. The exercise is scheduled to run from Aug. 18-31.
Agile Combat Employment is the Air Force’s operating concept in which Airmen and aircraft disperse from large central bases and operate from smaller, more austere locations in a “hub-and-spoke” manner to complicate an adversary’s targeting.
The concept, which first emerged in the Indo-Pacific, has quickly become a central tenet of Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s vision for the service, and USAFE commander Gen. James B. Hecker recently cited it as one of his top priorities for implementing in the region.
Dating back to the end of the Cold War, allied countries used to have a well-practiced ability to service and even re-arm any NATO aircraft that landed at a NATO base, but that capability has “atrophied,” Hecker said in a recent meeting with reporters.
“We are working to get that back,” Hecker said. To do it, NATO will provision “20-25 bases … in strategic locations around Europe” with the means to support a wide variety of allied aircraft. He declined to specify which bases.
The U.S. Air Force has operated from Šiauliai in Lithuania relatively frequently and poured resources into the base as part of the European Deterrence Initiative. In 2020, officials noted that the U.S. had invested more than $27 million in 18 separate projects at Šiauliai over the last several years. More recently, F-15Es and F-35s operated from there in 2022 as part of the NATO air policing mission.
USAF forces have operated from Rovaniemi in Finland, located at the edge of the Arctic Circle, on a less regular basis. While the base was part of the Arctic Challenge Exercise spread across Scandanavia earlier this year, no American aircraft operated from there. In January 2022, a 100th Air Refueling Wing KC-135 flew alongside Finnish fighters after taking off from Rovaniemi, and Reserve KC-135s flew from there in Arctic Challenge Exercise 2021.
“Astral Knight will continue to strengthen ally and partner interoperability while validating new ways to deploy and maneuver assets during a crisis or conflict,” Lt. Gen. John D. Lamontagne, deputy commander of USAFE, said in a statement. “Regular exercises, like AK, and our permanent forward presence are essential to projecting a credible deterrence to any future act of aggression against the alliance.”
Agile Combat Employment-related concepts have been part of recent U.S. Air Force exercises in Europe including Air Defender 2023, Defender Europe 23, and Falcon Strike 2022. F-35s and F-22s deployed to the continent have also conducted ACE operations out of countries like North Macedonia and Estonia.
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center wants a contractor to serve as integrator for all the software sustainment of current and future upgrades to the growing KC-46 Pegasus tanker fleet.
The B-21 Raider conducted a weapons release test for the first time, the Air Force and manufacturer Northrop Grumman said Nov. 13. The weapons release, which took place the first week of November, marked the aircraft’s transition from a flight test aircraft to a functional weapons platform.
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org The U.S. Air Force Academy debuted the service’s newest aircraft Nov....
U.S. Africa Command will soon see if a small, autonomous aircraft can evacuate casualties from austere locations during a demonstration planned for December in Morocco. Merlin, an autonomous aviation firm, announced Nov. 11 it has received a $500,000 contract from AFRICOM for the demo mission.
The Air Force on Nov. 10 announced it has finished an updated force design plan, intended to spell out how it will use combat power in a future war against capable adversaries.
A recent Pentagon memo barring troops from placing bets on prediction markets using classified or sensitive information is a necessary step toward clamping down on such activity in the ranks, but experts tell Air & Space Forces Magazine that enforcement will remain a major challenge.
Two of the Air Force’s semi-autonomous drones flew air combat maneuvers coordinated by an “AI pilot,” or mission autonomy software, in a test Oct. 26, a first for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
The F-35 Joint Program Office is struggling to keep track of billions of dollars worth of spare parts for the fifth-generation fighter, government auditors said in a new report—and it still can’t find $85 million in parts that have been lost for years.
After years of experiments and tests, senior Air Force leaders say they're on the verge of using C-17s and other cargo aircraft to launch cruise missiles via airdrop, touting the development as a way to bolster the combat fleet and a major shift in the service’s mindset.
✓
Thank You!
Check your inbox to verify your email address and finish setting up your AFA account.
★
Welcome Back!
An account with this email already exists. Please log in to continue.
Subscribe to the Air & Space Forces Daily Report
The latest news from Air & Space Forces Magazine, as well as news from other leading publications, delivered right to your inbox every morning!
We’re sorry, there has been an error. Please review your input or try again later.
