JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. -- Lt. Gen. Christopher Weggeman, the deputy commander of Air Combat Command and Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, Sixteenth Air Force commander, co-hosted a virtual Information warfare table top exercise to demonstrate convergence of various IW capabilities below and up to the threshold of armed conflict at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Dec. 7, 2020.
The TTX showcased force packaging and the convergence of principal Air Force IW capabilities in an operational environment to create non-kinetic effects and support kinetic effects to achieve outcomes supporting theater joint force commander and national objectives.
“As we continue to focus on our digital and ultimately information warfare convergence as a department it's essential that every one of us understands that the true power of all this convergence is game changing positive disruption,” said Weggeman. “A positive disruption that forces us to embrace new paradigms, to be customer centric, to integrate vise isolate, to challenge the rules, and ultimately to define and deliver a better way of flying, fighting, and winning across the spectrum of combat.”
The IW TTX was a collaborative effort between ACC, Sixteenth AF, and the US Air Force Warfare Center.
The exercise scenario centered on leveraging IW to counter the malign influence of a near-peer adversary in a region of interest to US national security. Exercise players emphasized a whole of government approach required for real-world operations.
The Air Force describes IW as the employment of military capabilities in and through the information environment to deliberately affect adversary human and system behavior and to preserve friendly freedom of action during cooperation, competition, and armed conflict.
Attendees included senior leaders from Headquarters Air Force, ACC, United States Space Force, Fifteenth Air Force, Twelfth Air Force, USAFWC, United States Air Forces Europe, Pacific Air Forces, Air Forces Central, Air Forces Central and Air Force Special Operations Command, among others.
To that end, planning for future iterations is already underway.