The Drive – The War Zone
BY JAMIE HUNTER
JULY 10, 2021
U.S. Air Force’s latest large force test event has once again pushed the boundaries of modern aerial warfare, leveraging long-range “kill web” technology and integration of an autonomous drone. A test pilot at the center of the work told The War Zone how ranges in the east and west of the United States came together to prove-out data link fusion, while the Air Force’s Skyborg program gave an early, but important, demonstration of how it can operate safely and effectively in complex aerial battlespace.
“This was another test event as part of a series that is focused on kill web integration, event survivability and — new for this iteration — two new focus areas: autonomy integration and very long range kill chain integration in that we actually linked up the respective four-hour Orange and Emerald Flag VULs [Vulnerability Periods] for about an hour via a system under test,” Major Brandon “Siphon” Burfeind, the Orange Flag Director, told The War Zoneduring an exclusive interview.