ACC commander visits Kirtland AFB prior to start of virtual exercise

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KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) --  Gen. William M. Fraser III, the Air Combat Command commander, visited the 705th Combat Training Squadron here Dec. 7, prior to the start of Virtual Flag.

Virtual Flag exercises are part of the 505th Command and Control Wing's mission at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and are intended to improve warfighter capability through command and control testing, tactics development and training.

Virtual Flag is ACC's only training venue that exercises the entire joint theater air-to-ground system from the joint force air component commander to the individual Airman on the ground directing effects across the battlespace.

For Virtual Flag exercises, the 705th CTS, known in the virtual training world as the Distributed Mission Operations Center, links simulators, modeling and simulation programs and computer-generated forces across 15 time zones. Virtual Flag 11-1 will involve hundreds of joint warfighters in a large-force, integrated joint fight.

"The ability to command and control air, space and cyber forces in accordance with the joint force commander's objectives is the crux of this exercise," said Lt. Col. Doug Horne, the 705th CTS director of operations.

Colonel Horne said this is easy to do when all things go according to plan, but the key is to practice for when they do not.

"Virtual Flag emphasizes degraded operations across kinetic and non-kinetic employment, as well as C2 across the operational and tactical-levels of war," he said. "Only by practicing degraded operations on a daily basis will our joint team be prepared for any future conflict."

While each Virtual Flag is unique in scope, scale and number of participants, the planning and execution begins by addressing all of ACC's priorities, he said.

"From there, we meld the individual training objectives of each participant to the (joint force air component commander's) plan and develop an exercise that includes of all their objectives," said Lt. Col. Dan Pepper, the 705th CTS commander. "General Fraser was impressed with the scope and scale of (Virtual Flag) 11-1's exercise planning and the integration of all objectives into one coherent, exercise plan."

Virtual Flag lessons learned are feeding the expanding 505th CCW's lessons learned program that will include major exercises such as Virtual, Red and Blue Flags and all Air Force operational-level C2 exercises and operations, officials said.

The 505th CCW program will then integrate into the Air Force's Lessons Learned Program. 

Virtual Flag 11-1 concludes Dec. 16.