The US Air Force has just completed a sweeping, monthlong stress test in the Indo-Pacific, designed to measure how well American forces could fight and sustain operations in a potential high-end conflict. Military leaders said it was the largest exercise in the region since the Cold War a clear signal that Washington is shifting its focus toward preparing for a confrontation with a great-power adversary, most notably China.
A Massive Test of Combat Readiness
The exercise fused together several major training events across services, allies, and partners. Its primary goals were ambitious:
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Sustaining large numbers of combat missions in contested environments.
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Moving cargo under threat while keeping supply lines operational.
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Integrating space-based technologies across air, land, sea, and cyber domains.
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Practicing Agile Combat Employment (ACE), the Air Force’s concept for fighting in a dispersed, unpredictable way.
ACE emphasizes dispersing aircraft from vulnerable fixed bases to smaller, remote, or rugged airfields throughout the region. The idea is simple but crucial: make US forces more flexible, survivable, and harder to target in a missile-rich environment like the Western Pacific.
This "hub-and-spoke" system links major hubs such as Andersen Air Force Base in Guam with remote outposts, where specially trained airmen, prepositioned equipment, and rapid airlift make operations possible. The goal is to project power from anywhere not just a few large bases that would likely be the first to face missile strikes in a conflict with China.
Learning Under Pressure
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin described the event as a deliberate attempt to “stress the system.” While he avoided specifics, he admitted that the force had made mistakes and that was the point.
“To have the exercise is one thing, but to fail forward, move fast, and learn from our mistakes is another,” Allvin said. “We validated our ability to sustain operations, deploy and redeploy at scale, and now must follow through on lessons learned. This evolution, implementation, and iteration prepare us for the future fight.”
Back to Cold War-Style Training
Allvin and other leaders have repeatedly argued that the Air Force must return to large-scale exercises, similar to those conducted in the Cold War. Smaller drills, while valuable, don’t replicate the demands of a peer-level conflict where air superiority is contested and supply chains are under constant attack.
Last fall, Allvin previewed these exercises, saying that wing-level and major command (MAJCOM) units were already experimenting with bigger, more complex drills. This month’s Indo-Pacific stress test was the most expansive to date, designed to simulate a fight where China could deny or disrupt US dominance in the air, space, and cyber domains.
The Role of the Space Force
A major component of the training was the integration of the Space Force. In a future conflict, adversaries are expected to use satellites, sensors, and space-based technologies to target US forces.
The exercise tested how well American airmen could maintain secure communications, preserve command-and-control links, and continue launching sorties while under pressure from space-based surveillance and jamming. In this sense, the drills weren’t just about flying planes they were about fighting across every domain simultaneously.
Preparing for a China Scenario
Though officials avoided naming China directly, the focus on the Indo-Pacific makes the exercise’s intent clear. A potential conflict over Taiwan or in the South China Sea would place the US in a highly contested theater, where forward bases could be destroyed within hours of hostilities.
By practicing ACE, dispersing aircraft, integrating space operations, and stress-testing logistics, the Air Force is preparing for exactly that scenario.
The Bigger Picture
This exercise represents more than just training it’s part of a strategic pivot. For decades, US operations focused on counterinsurgency campaigns in the Middle East, where air superiority was uncontested. Now, the Air Force is rehearsing for a fight where every domain is contested, every base is a target, and every sortie requires resilience.
For Gen. Allvin, the lesson is clear: “The only way to be ready for the future fight is to test ourselves at scale today.”
