The US Air Force's (USAF's) AFWERX venture is considering having aircraft participating in its Agility Prime programme operate in two high-level USAF exercises in 2021.
Colonel Nathan Diller, AFWERX director, told Janes on 23 June that Orange Flag and Emerald Flag would likely be Agility Prime's next operational exercises. Agility Prime had its first operational exercise with the Kitty Hawk Heaviside electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in May, according to a USAF statement. Agility Prime is AFWERX's advanced air mobility vehicle effort.
Kitty Hawk's Heaviside eVTOL aircraft demonstrated for US Air Force officials as part of Agility Prime in May. This is considered the programme's first operational exercise. (Air Force Research Lab)
Orange Flag is a multidomain, large force test series hosted by the Air Force Test Center's (AFTC's) 412th Test Wing that includes USAF units from across the country. The exercise plans to bring testing as close as possible to operators through combat-relevant testing early in the development cycle. Occurring triannually, Orange Flag seeks to place instrumented test aircraft in operationally relevant environments to achieve test objectives for combatant commanders (COCOMs) and participating units.
Emerald Flag – a joint-service, large-scale test hosted at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida – incorporates ground, space, cyberspace, and air platforms. The goal of Emerald Flag, which held its first edition in December 2020, is to link real-world systems together to demonstrate joint and all-domain operational capabilities while identifying tangible shortcomings in these systems in a realistic operating environment. Emerald Flag connects these different platforms to improve the speed and flow of information.
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