Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2008 underway

  • Published
  • By Capt. Larry van der Oord
  • Global Cyberspace Integration Center Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) --  After many months of planning and preparation, the first quarter event for Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2008 kicked off Nov. 5 and will run through Nov 16.

As the lead agency for JEFX, the Air Force Global Cyberspace Integration Center, or AF GCIC, will conduct the experiment with participation from sister services, coalition nations, combatant commands and government agencies to assess initiatives to fulfill identified gaps in warfighting capability.

Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne visited the AF GCIC Hot Bench Nov. 13 here for briefings and demonstrations on several initiatives being assessed during the first quarter JEFX event.

The JEFX team creates a command and control laboratory to assess various initiatives in a collaborative, synthetic environment. By using modeling and simulation, they are able to change the landscape of the battlefield to explore a myriad of scenarios and options for achieving the desired effects with a focus on improving global strike integration.

"One of the unique things about this experiment is the fact that we are working from the strategic all the way down to the tactical level," said Brig. Gen. Mike H. McClendon, AF GCIC commander, during his briefing to Secretary Wynne. "This is something that has never been done before in a machine-to-machine collaborative environment."

Assessing technology readiness and military utility of experimental initiatives are two main objectives of JEFX, added General McClendon.

Since 2006, JEFX has been re-shaped from a large-scale, biennial field experiment into smaller, more frequent events to continue its mission of rapidly fielding critical capabilities to the warfighter. JEFX 08-1 is the first of these leaner, more agile events.

"This year's focus is on collaboration and connectivity across the strategic, operational and tactical levels to plan and execute military operations," said Col. Stephen Moulton, GCIC Modernization and Innovation director. "The JEFX 2008 environment will be made up of distributed sites from each level of warfighting command to experiment with capabilities designed to improve collaboration and connectivity."

The experiment will explore 11 different initiatives and involve 640 participants including assessors, controllers and support personnel operating from 17 locations. 

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