The Department of the Air Force has wrapped up a month-long Department-Level Exercise series staged across the Western Pacific, a sprawling effort designed to test how Airmen and Guardians deploy, sustain and fight at scale in contested air and space environments. Conducted in July and August 2025, the nested, phased series linked multiple events — including Resolute Force Pacific, Resolute Space, Mobility Guardian 2025, Emerald Warrior and Bamboo Eagle 25-3 — and drew in multiple commands and areas of operation.
Senior leaders from the Air Force and Space Force used a panel on the third day of the 2025 Air, Space and Cyber Conference to outline takeaways from the summer campaign. The discussion brought together Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces; Gen. Adrian L. Spain, commander of Air Combat Command; Gen. John D. Lamontagne, commander of Air Mobility Command; and Lt. Gen. David N. Miller Jr., commander of Space Operations Command, with retired Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost moderating.
Schneider said the series tied together operational command-post work with fielded forces and tactical training in a way that tested command-and-control from top to bottom. “The ability to pull all three of those things together, higher headquarters exercises all the way down to the lowest Airmen in the field, to have a command and control and communications all the way through those echelons of command to focus on operational-level campaigning over a longer duration,” he said. “It was a big lift … but it was highly successful, and I believe well worth the investment from the United States Air Force and the Department of the Air Force to continue to pursue things like this.”
Lamontagne emphasized the scope of the undertaking. “Four hundred aircraft, 15,000 Airmen, 50 different locations; it takes a lot of work to make that happen,” Lamontagne said. “That range – it’s one thing to do that within the continental United States and another thing entirely to do that around the world. I would submit our United States Air Force is the only air force on the planet that can project forces at that speed, at that scale, and that range.”
Spain said pushing people and systems hard in training is central to maintaining an edge. “One of the reasons we’re the world’s greatest Air Force is because we train hard,” Spain said. “We challenge ourselves in training and we’re not training just to look good and we’re not training to make ourselves feel better. We’re training to learn lessons.” He added: “The lessons we’re going to garner from it are going to help us propel our combat capabilities even farther and faster.”
He also underscored the role of partners. “These exercises are an opportunity for us to train with our allies and partners in ways that we often don’t get to [train],” Spain said. “So, while we’re getting better, it’s really about the joint and coalition team getting better.”
Miller said the Space Force used the large-scale setting to refine how it supports the joint force. “What the Joint Force needs from the Space Force as a decisive [capability] is really two things; deliver that space-enabled combat edge” in a contested environment, said Miller, “while simultaneously protecting our joint force, including ourselves, from space-enabled attack. … The lessons learned directly apply to the threats we are facing today, and more importantly underscore the investments we have made and are making … to allow us to not just keep pace but outpace potential adversaries.”
Exercises at this scale also exposed where command-and-control can improve, Schneider said. “The exercises allowed us to put a really hot and effective spotlight on those places on which we can improve,” Schneider said. “People, pipes, and processes [are what we need] when it comes to command and control. Where do the people need to be? Where do the command-and-control nodes need to be? … What are the pipes or pathways … that we need to be able to communicate with each other?” He added that decision-making must be pushed to the edge: “When it comes to force generation under [my commander of Air Force Forces] hat, really being able push decision making as far downhill as I can, and the risk decisions that go along with that, the people who are in the best position to make those determinations – where airplanes need to go, when they need to launch, where the fuel or munitions need to go – is not necessarily me … but an air expeditionary wing commander at the front edge of the fight. [That person] is dealing with the force protection issues, knows where their stuff is, and knows how to move their disaggregated force around hubs and spokes to reaggregate quickly.”
Spain argued the service needs to keep repeating this kind of event. “We can do it, and we did it,” Spain said. “The ability to continue to do this kind of exercise is the most important lesson as a force provider. We have to continue to provide this venue and bring these events together in ways that stress our force for large-scale employment in ways that we haven’t done in a very long time. The sets and reps required to get proficient in this only come with doing it.”
Miller said Guardians and Airmen performed under demanding conditions and that the effort validated Space Force’s revamped force generation model. “Our Guardians and the Airmen that are in our formations – we have never taken that much capability in personnel out of operational formations to support the tactical level across so many different locations before,” Miller said. “They performed superbly. The second piece is [the exercise] really validated the necessity of our new [space] force generation model, where we carve out time dedicated to specific training, tactics development, integration, and ultimately training and exercising evolutions that we need. It dialed in our approach.”
Lamontagne pointed to contributions from active-duty, Guard and Reserve components and said the coalition dimension deepened interoperability. “With our allies and partners, we had a great opportunity to interfly with them, not just providing gas and fuel for them to extend across the vast ranges of the Pacific, but also interflying within and across formations. So, their airplanes within our air refueling formations, as well as in our airlift formations at pretty good depth, a great opportunity for us to get better and stronger together,” Lamontagne said. “We are also on the receiving end of some of their capabilities. Our Canadian allies have some really robust [aeromedical evacuation] capabilities that actually surpass ours in some areas.”
Looking ahead, Schneider said units must be ready to plug into coalition-ready command-and-control systems. “We have to show up, full up, as ready fighting units that can snap into existing [command and control] structures,” Schneider said. Spain added that modernization must work with what’s already fielded. “We [the Department of the Air Force and industry] have to ensure that integrated by design is not a buzz word and it’s not a catch phrase, and we’re actually executing it,” said Spain.
“The path we’re on is the right path,” Lamontagne said, noting AMC is moving to preposition equipment across the Pacific and expand secure beyond-line-of-sight communications and tactical data links throughout mobility aircraft to better support joint operations.
Miller closed with a reminder that future fights will demand more initiative at lower echelons. “We are going to have to expect more and more from the tactical-level units of action, executing mission command, using mission type orders, and they need to have the wherewithal and capability to do it,” said the SpOC commander.
