Photo By Senior Airman Deanna Muir | Airmen from the 347th Operation Support Squadron and 23rd Operations Support Squadron...... read more read more
Subscribe
Mosaic Tiger 22-1, held Nov. 15-19, 2021, implemented innovative Command and Control concepts as a key component to the exercise.
“Command and Control is the art and science of maneuvering forces around the battlespace to achieve a military objective,” said Maj. Aaron Gordon, 23rd Wing A-Staff director of operations. “This is an important incorporation in the Mosaic Tiger exercise to contest our operations, specifically our ability to communicate with our dispersed forces. Our wing staff has come up with several intricate solutions to have an alternate and contingency plan to keep communication avenues open when our communications get degraded.”
One of those alternate plans was to employ a Deployed Intelligence Combat Element kit to combat degraded communications and enable Agile Combat Employment in contested environments. The DICE kits aimed to provide the ability to communicate securely between operators, communications Airmen, and intel units as well as maintaining communications between the forward operating base and their contingency location counterparts, even when their communication lines are compromised.
“The Rand Corporation did a study on the last 20 years of Air Force combat operations under the assumption that air bases are sanctuaries and communications are reliable,” said Maj. Christine Cuber, 23rd WG A-Staff director of intelligence. “Truth is that in a peer-to-peer conflict, our bases are targetable and our communications are vulnerable.”
Taking that into consideration, the A-Staff invited C2 experts from the 505th Command and Control Wing, Hurlburt Field, Florida, prior to the exercise to visit Moody AFB to train Airmen on the DICE kits and discuss ways that C2 can support the Lead Wing concept.
This C2 concept is unique to Lead Wings, said Lt. Col. John Staudt, 505th CCW commander’s action group chief, who trained Air Combat Command Airmen and 23rd WG’s A-Staff on the use of C2 for exercises like Mosaic Tiger.
“The Command and Control training helped us to ask more appropriate questions to set a more valid precedent for the rest of the Air Force,” Staudt said.
Identifying the needs of the wing are crucial to allocating the proper resources, technology and training. Obtaining the DICE kits, receiving instruction for the kits and applying C2 training to the Mosaic Tiger exercise helped identify the technological and additional instructing needs of the wing.
“It’s not just about generating aircraft, it’s a whole wing effort,” said Lt. Col. Adam Chitwood, ACC Detachment 24 Agile Battle Lab commander and observer for Mosaic Tiger. “These exercises and the learning are not going away; it’s going to be an on-going thing for a long time.”
Proactively finding solutions to communication set-backs, through innovation and updated technology, will create a war-fighting force that is ready and capable. Combining C2 with Lead Wing concepts creates an evolving learning environment, allowing Agile Combat Employment concepts to be implemented and used more readily across the wing.
That capability matters to Col. Russ Cook, 23rd Wing commander. During the Wing commander’s all call in July 2021, he discussed the importance of what it means to be a Lead Wing and what the Airmen of Moody need to do to make that happen.
“(Airman readiness) is the most critical element for us,” Cook said. “Aircraft don’t fight, radios don’t do Command and Control – Airmen do.”
Story was originally posted to dvidshub.net on Nov. 19, 2021, and may be found at https://www.dvidshub.net/news/409725/mosaic-tiger-22-1-incorporating-command-control-lead-wing.
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 11.19.2021 19:04 |
| Story ID: | 409725 |
| Location: | MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 264 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Mosaic Tiger 22-1: incorporating Command, Control for Lead Wing, by SrA Rebeckah Valladares, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
