Bamboo Eagle 25-3 has united US and allied forces across multiple continents to practice operational and tactical command and control in a contested environment. Led by the US Air Force Warfare Center, the exercise has tested joint and coalition responses to complex short-notice threats, sharpening speed, flexibility, and cooperation to defend national and allied interests.
“Bamboo Eagle was an enlightening insight into the conduct of strategic level planning, to operational/tactical execution of very complex multi-domain missions within the USINDOPACOM theatre,” Australian Defence Force Headquarters Joint Operations Command, Operations and Plans Branch director of theatre effects, RAAF Group Captain, Jeremy Feldhahn, stated.
“There were some great lessons in the command and control of these types of missions, when considering the vast distances, logistical challenges, and degraded communications.”
The Department-Level Exercise highlighted how US and coalition C2 forces operate as one team across live, virtual, and constructive domains. Real-world operations at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Camp Smith were linked with the Distributed Mission Operations Center’s scenario at Kirtland Air Force Base, while the 505th Command and Control Wing at Hurlburt Field generated a synthetic air expeditionary task force and theater-wide constructive air picture.
“Using virtual assets, the 505th Command and Control Wing roughly doubled the scope and scale of the live-fly element while providing theater-representative problem sets for the 613th Air Operations Center and the AFFOR [Air Force Forces] staff,” 505th CCW commander, US Air Force Colonel Ryan Hayde, stated.
Together, these efforts have integrated distributed tactical and operational C2 forces, connecting US and coalition partners in real and simulated environments in combat-realistic Indo-Pacific scenarios.
The DMOC linked eight tactical C2 units, MQ-9 and naval simulators, personnel recovery assets, and the Air Force Reserve Command’s 349th Air Mobility Wing staff into the larger Bamboo Eagle environment. These connections have tied directly to the 613th AOC and the AFFOR, bridging tactical decision-making to operational command.