EXCLUSIVE: Army Airpower [+F-35] Strike Deep EDGE21 War-game

[spazsinbad]

EXCLUSIVE: Army Airpower To Strike Deep In EDGE21 War-game
19 Feb 2021 Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

"New drones – launched by helicopters in flight and built by the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office – will reach out “hundreds of kilometers.” Marine F-35s, 82nd Airborne troops, and Special Ops will also participate in exercise EDGE21....

...WASHINGTON: The Army will host an interservice aviation exercise in May to prove its Chief of Staff’s recent claim that the service can bring “speed and range” to future battlefields. Known as EDGE21 — [b]Experimentation Demonstration Gateway Event 2021 – and held at Dugway Proving Ground, the experimental wargame will be the Army’s latest bid to prove it plays a vital role in far-ranging and fast-paced All Domain Operations.

...Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters will also fly in EDGE21, Rugen told me. The stealth jets played an intriguing role in Project Convergence last fall, passing targeting data to and from Army forces – but the Marine pilots were a late addition to the Army-run exercise, and their participation was limited. This time, the Marines were part of the plan for EDGE21 from the beginning, Rugen said, and “there’s far more breadth and depth to the task we’re asking them to do, [with] much greater collaboration on joint kill chains.”...

...Once the 82nd commander decides the F-35s and drones have sufficiently beaten down the simulated “enemy” anti-aircraft defenses, he will order something that was not attempted in Project Convergence: an air assault. Black Hawk helicopters will fly in infantry soldiers equipped with the Army’s brand-new augmented-reality targeting goggles, the Integrated Visual Augmentation System. “We’re jumping into our first IVAS-enabled air assault,” Rugen told me...."

Source: https://breakingdefense.com/2021/02/exc ... -war-game/

[XanderCrews]

Can't believe the army "forgot" to request A-10s for this...

[quicksilver]

How ironic.

New USMC force design would give up some F-35Bs, and it turns out the Army wants to use those they have left.

Careful whatcha wish for, gents.

[XanderCrews]

How ironic.

New USMC force design would give up some F-35Bs, and it turns out the Army wants to use those they have left.

Careful whatcha wish for, gents.

I'm telling you its osprey 2.0, Marines will get requests out the wazoo to support a lot of different units with the unique capabilities and there won't be enough to "chop" to everyone who wants them. I presume the numbers will climb back up when this is realized.

The heavy lift bubbas just keep getting work too, they can't even keep up with it all and that's with a lot of hard work going into improving readiness numbers that are actually doing better than most other aircraft, and they're still barely above water.

[outlaw162]

Looks like an opening for a whole new service....like Space Command. It could be....

Marine/Army, or simply Marmy Aviation Command....add the Strategic hvy lifters, that would make it the Smarmy Aviation Command.

[spazsinbad]

Looks like an opening for a whole new service....like Space Command. It could be....
Marine/Army, or simply Marmy Aviation Command....add the Strategic hvy lifters, that would make it the Smarmy Aviation Command.

They'd better watch out for the BARMY ARMY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmy_Army

[XanderCrews]

Looks like an opening for a whole new service....like Space Command. It could be....

Marine/Army, or simply Marmy Aviation Command....add the Strategic hvy lifters, that would make it the Smarmy Aviation Command.

and all paid for by the Navy.


Many times the army has been offered and declined A-10s, they are smart enough not to buy a cow that already gives them free milk.

[sprstdlyscottsmn]

Many times the army has been offered and declined A-10s, they are smart enough not to buy a cow that already gives them free milk.

Pretty sure when the air-force split the requirement was that the army would not have any fixed wing aircraft that fire munitions. IIRC

[XanderCrews]

Many times the army has been offered and declined A-10s, they are smart enough not to buy a cow that already gives them free milk.

Pretty sure when the air-force split the requirement was that the army would not have any fixed wing aircraft that fire munitions. IIRC

Thats the old days. The army did studies in the 1980s (and declined the A-10 based on infrastructure costs) and the USAF tried to give the Army and the Marines A-10s a few times throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The most recent "no thanks" was about 6 years ago:

https://www.military.com/daily-news/201 ... force.html

You probably can't find a guy who even remembers what Key West is