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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- Exploring agile combat support and dynamic battle control capabilities in a distributed collaborative environment for military forces around the globe is the goal of Air Mobility Command's Tanker Airlift Control Center during the Air Force's Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2000.

JEFX 2000 is a two-week "laboratory" that brings together more than 5,000 people at more than 17 different locations from all the services. It uses live-fly, virtual and constructive simulations to create a future warfighting environment.

JEFX 2000 is giving TACC personnel an opportunity to explore and assess new and emerging technologies and operational concepts designed to improve air mobility support for the warfighter.

"The experiment is the perfect method to employ or insert new technology into warfighting scenarios. It allows operator involvement early in the development and acquisition process," said Lt. Col. Scott Weaver, chief of the integration division at the TACC and the agency's lead planner for JEFX 2000. "We want to capitalize on technology and find better ways to employ air mobility forces to deploy and sustain expeditionary forces."

Several global mobility initiatives are being showcased in the TACC during JEFX that support strategic and theater airlift, tanker, and aeromedical operations planning and execution.

Information for Global Reach -- IFGR -- is AMC's over-arching initiative concept that uses datalink communications between the TACC and air mobility aircraft.

IFGR exploits all available military and commercial communications assets to provide intelligent, flexible and cost effective connectivity for deployed AMC operations.

The IFGR-Care-In-The-Air initiative, conducted from the TACC, explored the processes and technologies necessary to support the near real time exchange of patient status and care needs while en route to and from ground air evacuation stations and medical facilities.
AMC expanded its mobility 2000 efforts started in JEFX 99 to revolutionize command and control of air mobility forces via the IFGR-Expeditionary Integrated Flight Management initiative.

Weaver said the initiative is focused on three key capabilities: enhancement of computer automated aircraft route planning capabilities, real-time electronic submission of flight plans to Air Traffic Control organizations for approval and filing, and dynamic re-tasking of simulated and live-fly aircraft.

He said the major joint initiative in support of both Air Force and Army experimentation objectives during JEFX 2000 is the IFGR-En route Mission Planning and Rehearsal System.

The Army identified an operational need for the ability to conduct mission replanning and rehearsal while en route to an objective area.

In JEFX 2000, a live batallion air drop was conducted where 11 C-130s transported elements of the 82nd Airborne Division from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., to a drop zone in Louisiana.

During the en route portion of the flight, changing events in the planned drop zone caused the Army mission commanders to change their battle plan.

These changing ground events required the airdrop package to be retargeted to a new set of coordinates via datalink messages from the TACC to the lead C-130 aircraft.

"The IFGR technology in this initiative also compressed a large picture of the drop zone image into a smaller file transmitted over various communication paths," Weaver said. "A 271 kilobyte image of the new drop zone with 'threat' info was compressed and chunked into three five kilobyte packets to the lead C-130."

He said JEFX 2000 was a very ambitious and dynamic experiment with the TACC operators, planners and communicators, providing the expertise and innovation that made AMC's global mobility initiatives a success. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).