Department-Level Exercise (DLE) Series

Through this series, the Department of the Air Force is preparing to be a stronger, more lethal deterrent force, to provide an advantage against competitors and adversaries across all domains, and to ensure regional stability in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

The DLE series will incorporate multiple command exercises into one overall threat deterrence scenario, including Resolute Force Pacific (REFORPAC), Resolute Space, Mobility Guardian, Emerald Warrior and Bamboo Eagle 25-3.

It will also integrate multiple allies and partners in specific component exercises with shared interests. Partner integration is critical to U.S. efforts to ensure regional and global peace and stability and provides a decisive advantage against complex threats.

B-17 & B-24 Mass Production | AFRL Discovery to Delivery

Air Force Research Laboratory

Video by Keith C Lewis

Jan. 1, 2026 | 1:52

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The B-17 represents some of the challenges that modern autonomous collaborative platforms, or ACP, are solving for our nation today.

Those challenges include cost, the ability to produce at scale, and operating in highly contested airspaces. Now, this B-17 Flying Fortress, along with B-24 Liberator bomber, were used in our strategic bombing campaign against Germany in World War II.

Bomber aircrews operated in highly contested airspace, which led to over 8,000 B-17 and B-24 lost in combat and more than 30,000 heavy bomber crewmen killed in action during that campaign. Because these bombers were produced in such large numbers, the U.S. Army Air Forces were able to sustain such grievous losses.

That said, these heavy losses, at times, forced leaders to pause campaigns or avoid important targets in order to protect the force structure.

In addition to protecting the lives of our Airmen by taking them out of the cockpit, ACPs are also addressing the challenges of cost and the Air Force’s ability to quickly produce aircraft in large numbers. As our airframes have become more and more sophisticated, they take longer to develop, cost more, and are produced in smaller numbers.

This poses a real problem for our warfighters, but ACPs promise a solution to meet these needs at cost and in numbers, like during World War II.

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Air Force Historian, Jeff Duford, joins the AFRL “Discovery to Delivery” video series to uncover the historic scope and role of AFRL’s critical research, which delivers today’s warfighting capabilities More