Space gets greater
role in Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment '99
Released: 20 Jul 1999
by Capt. LeWonnie Belcher
Air Force Space Command Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFPN) --
Looking at ways space systems can help in "Forging a
Decisive Edge" in future conflicts is one of the prime
objectives during the upcoming Joint Expeditionary Force
Experiment 1999.
JEFX '99 is scheduled to take place Aug. 18
through Sept. 3, and is the second in a series of Air Force
experiments that examines advanced technologies and new
operational concepts to determine how the military will
operate in the 21st century.
This year's event will feature an even
larger role for space, according to Lt. Col. Matt Mills, Air
Force Space Command's chief of exercise and employment branch.
During the course of JEFX '99, C2 technology
integration and process development will be examined closely,
and actual air and space systems will be augmented through
modeling and simulation technologies -- some representing
advanced future capabilities, Mills said.
One of the main objectives of the experiment
will be to test "reach back" capabilities, the
ability to support contingency operations anywhere in the
world from the continental United States, from a command and
control perspective.
This will be done by having a Coalition
Forces Air Component Commander, or CFACC, and his staff
assemble at a Coalition Air Operations Center at Hurlburt
Field, Fla. They will be charged with providing overall C2 for
the "deployment" location of the simulated theater
of conflict. The Air Force Operational Support Center will
stand up at Langley Air Force Base, Va., in support of the
CFACC. Additional primary sites will provide direct support to
the CFACC using virtual C2 collaborative systems.
Feedback on the results of JEFX '99 will be
provided by an assessment team and then published in a final
report that will go to the chief of staff of the Air Force.
According to Maj. Russ Smith, the experiment
project officer for JEFX '99, space systems capabilities are
crucial to ensuring the success of AEFs as it relates to the
overall expeditionary aerospace force.
"In fact, without space the EAF cannot
occur," he said. "The simplest example is
communications. Without satellite communications to enable the
en route updates to the CFACC and the en route reprogramming
-- or actual programming -- of a weapons platform, the EAF
just cannot occur. Period."
Additionally, the less obvious role of space
is the intelligence preparation of the battlefield, or the IPB,
according to Smith.
"Without the capabilities of overhead
assets being brought to bear on any type of battlespace, there
is no situational awareness," Smith said. "The
people making the plans that the warfighter will implement
have no information from which to build their plan without
space. Those systems enable the CFACC and the senior planners
and their senior decision-makers to have a more complete
picture.
"We want that picture to be larger and
more robust than what the enemy has so that we can make
decisions faster," he said. "That's the whole point
-- to get things going quicker than the enemy can. Space
systems are absolutely vital to the life and health of an
AEF."
Also, space systems will play a significant
role in expanding and enhancing reach back capability,
according to Col. Larry D. James, director of operations for
14th Air Force.
"We'll be looking at providing space
data from the 14th Air Force Aerospace Operations Center as
well as providing operational support that the theater
requests."
James said other things that will be looked
at during JEFX '99 include the integration and coordination of
Air and Space Tasking Orders.
"We're working to ensure that the Space
Tasking Order that we put out on a daily basis is properly
formatted and able to be integrated into the Air Tasking Order
so that someday we will be able to work from an integrated ATO."
The ultimate gain for the role of space in
JEFX '99 may be the increased awareness among those in Air
Force Space Command about their role in the aerospace force.
"The EFX environment is now allowing
space command to educate space operators that what they do has
impact and what they do actually supports a different wartime
effort than what they are used to thinking about,"
according to Smith.
Conversely, JEFX is letting the "air
breathers" know what capabilities space brings to the
fight.
"Space command understands the power of
space systems, but we've got to educate the rest of the
world," Smith said. "What's in it for the rest of
the Air Force is that they get to see a whole new tool box of
what's out there. That's the beauty of JEFX. It's instituting
a cultural shift."
JEFX '99 is the culmination of a year-long
effort that includes three mini-experiments, or
"spirals," and concludes with a two-week
"execution period" that begins on Aug. 18. The
spiral system helps to field new and emerging technologies
quickly using commercial and government
"off-the-shelf" equipment. Spiral development brings
the developers and operators side-by-side to review and
improve the systems.
The first spiral tested command and control,
or C2, systems software used in the experiment. The second
integrated and tested C2 system and process initiatives at
experiment sites. The third, which began July 14 and runs
through the 21st, is a dry run for the JEFX execution phase
that kicks off in August.
The experiment includes live and simulated
flying operations and related military activities designed to
add realism to stress-filled combat-like environments. All
live-fly operations will occur at Nellis AFB, Nev.
The "crisis" scenario for this
year's event involves a simulated attack by a border rogue
nation against one of America's overseas allies. At the
request of the embattled nation, the United States will send
an aerospace expeditionary force to counter the attack.
The 366th Wing from Mountain Home AFB,
Idaho, forms the core of the Aerospace Expeditionary Force
needed for the response. As part of the exercise, Mountain
Home must prepare aircraft and personnel for deployment and
coordinate with the 53rd Wing from Eglin AFB, Fla., the core
wing for an already in-place AEF.
RELATED SITES
* Air
Expeditionary Force Battlelab
* Air Force
Space Command
* Eglin Air Force Base,
Fla.
* Expeditionary Aerospace
Force
* Expeditionary
Force Experiment
* Hurlburt Field, Fla.
* Langley Air Force
Base, Va.
* Mountain Home
Air Force Base, Idaho
* Nellis Air Force Base,
Nev.
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