Threats
Exercise underscored need for AI, autonomy, C2, and networks
Operating with speed, scale, and agility in the Indo-Pacific is “probably the most challenging thing” the military does, PACAF commander says.
Jennifer Hlad | November 5, 2025
Air Force Space Force Indo-Pacific
HONOLULU—Pacific Air Forces’s massive REFORPAC exercise in the Pacific this summer “identified the capabilities that we need to win in this theater,” the command’s deputy leader said last week: namely, artificial intelligence, autonomy, machine learning; improved command and control capabilities; and resilient cyber networks “that can communicate securely in expeditionary environments and survive relentless attacks.”
Speaking at the AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pacific conference, Lt. Gen. Laura Lenderman said that while “revisionist autocracies” want to “upend the security, freedom, and prosperity” of the Indo-Pacific, there is “another chapter we’re writing…filled with optimism and clarity, that strengthens deterrence, inspires progress and reinforces our shared vision of the future.”
That vision was “on full display” during Exercise Resolute Pacific, Lenderman said.
The exercise included 4,000 sorties at 50 locations that spanned 6,000 miles. Shortly after it kicked off in July, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider said in an interview that this region “is critically important, not only to the nations in the region that touch the Pacific Ocean, but to the world.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/11/exercise-underscored-need-ai-autonomy-c2-and-networks/409347/?oref=d1-homepage-river
