By 2nd Lt. Christine Saunders, AFTC/PA and 1st Lt. Savanah Bray 53 WG/PA / Published March 08, 2021
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The rationale of combining the planning process is simple:
Orange Flag focuses on technical integration and innovation across a breadth of Technology Readiness Levels,
Black Flag focuses on the tactical integration of more mature technologies.
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This iteration of Orange Flag focused on two primary objectives:
kill web integration and advanced survivability. Kill web integration included Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force sensors and tactical networks, as well as legacy and emerging JADC2 nodes.
“Orange Flag started three years ago with the intent to assess integration of warfighting systems in a dense threat, operationally representative environment,” said Maj. Gen. Christopher Azzano, AFTC commander. “It has been tremendously successful.”
A major Orange Flag success is the testing of
F-35 and F-22 integration with land-based long-range fires, naval fires, and space-based sensors without humans-in-the-loop. Other successes include tests of
multi-national F-35 and command and control integration, strategic intelligence surveillance, and reconnaissance integration through all domains.
This was the first official Black Flag since COMACC Plan 21 was signed in December 2020 to formalize the test event. Black Flag focuses on testing and validating Tactics Improvement Proposals, or TIPs presented each year at the annual Weapons and Tactics Conference. TIPs tested at Black Flag 21-1 included
HH-60 Air-to-Air survivability, F-35 Emissions Control tactics development, and continue tactics development and evaluation for the
F-16 APG-83 AESA Radar, among others.
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Orange Flag, Emerald Flag, and Black Flag work in concert as the “
test triad” to provide robust test environments geared toward the advancement of Joint All-Domain Operations and the National Defense Strategy. These Test Flags are the premier large force test events which support testing of JADC2 and the Advanced Battle Management System and to validate new tactics and technologies for warfighting forces.
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The next iteration of Orange Flag, planned for June 2021, anticipates testing
GatewayONE, Skyborg, and several emerging JADC2 capabilities as well as welcoming back our current participants. The efforts of Orange Flag, Black Flag, and the 53d Wing will be on display this May at Northern Edge 2021.
Publicado: Dom Feb 21, 2021 11:52 am
