In a future war against China or other advanced adversaries, Air Force units may have to operate for days, weeks, or longer while cut off from reinforcements, resupply, or even communications.
Therefore, Mosaic Tiger 26-1 tested Moody Air Force Base’s 23rd Wing in a scenario where teams must keep generating combat sorties and maintaining aircraft on their own if necessary.
That exercise, conducted November 12 through 21 at locations across Florida and Georgia, aimed to show how the 23rd Wing could carry out combat operations in a high end conflict against a significant adversary.
The Air Force described its Agile Combat Employment strategy as the backbone of the exercise, designed to keep wings operating from dispersed, austere airfields even when central bases are cut off.
ACE, or Agile Combat Employment, pushes units to operate out of smaller, spread out bases that are rougher than established sites. This enables the Air Force to maintain operations in a contested battlespace even if resupply or reinforcements are delayed.
The exercise included a variety of airmen and units, including attack, rescue and support elements, tested under environments meant to simulate the contested conditions future conflicts may bring.
Airmen had to establish a forward operating site, rapidly rearm and refuel aircraft, a technique known as integrated combat turns, and maintain operations from those contingency locations. The goal was to show they can be adaptable and operate from distributed sites.
One of the first and most important elements of the exercise was the activation of the wing’s 23rd Combat Air Base Squadron, the base explained. That squadron was charged with establishing forward operating sites and setting up the new bases’ defense, logistics, and communications capabilities.
As part of the multi-capable airman concept, airmen may have to do jobs outside of their core specialties, such as maintaining aircraft, establishing communications or guarding base perimeters, since an isolated base may not have all the resources or personnel a location typically would.
“Every airmen in the squadron is tackling tasks that normally wouldn’t fall in their wheelhouse,” squadron commander Lt. Col. Justin May said.
Maintenance airmen from the 74th and 75th Fighter Generation Squadrons at Moody were split up and sent to multiple locations, each with unique situations and challenged to keep aircraft able to fly for a certain amount of time — without knowing when they might be resupplied.
“Whatever those airmen brought with them, they need to use judiciously until a future resupply,” the Air Force said on Nov. 19.
By forcing them to use equipment and supplies such as spare parts and oil sparingly, maintainers had to be innovative and adapt to the changing environments to keep planes such as A-10 Warthogs in the fight, the service noted.
“Being responsible for what supplies we do have on site all leads back to ensuring that we stay accountable and utilize all resources available,” Staff Sgt. William Flores, a crew chief with the 75th, said in the Nov. 19 statement.
“Take oil, for example. If we’re burning too much oil, we may want to swap jets so we’re not using more oil than we can supply, and by doing that, we can maintain air operations.”
Airmen also practiced how they would keep generating combat sorties even if their communications with higher levels of command were limited or cut off altogether.
Moody said in a Nov. 21 statement that airmen would have an air tasking order that spells out what they are supposed to do over the following three days.
If the communication outage lasts beyond those three days, the service said, a unit would shift to broader guidance on its mission and coordinate directly with nearby units.
That would involve operating in line with what units knew their commanders’ last known intent to be, the base explained, as well as operating on prebriefed timelines.
“If [communication] degradation lasts past 72 hours, we would shift to military-type orders that provide broad intent and allow us to coordinate with adjacent units without the detailed integration from the” said Lt. Col. David Pool, commander of the 74th Mission Generation Force Element.
“That’s where the wing would step in to assist in liaising between adjacent units to conduct detailed mission planning prior to execution.”
This kind of readiness aligns with the priorities President Trump has long championed, and it mirrors the leadership approach of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who has argued for a force that can strike quickly, sustain itself, and outlast a determined adversary.
The mosaic of dispersed bases and self-reliant tactics sends a clear message: America’s military must be able to project power and defend the homeland even when the clock starts ticking against us.
The lessons from Mosaic Tiger 26-1 are not theoretical; they are practical proof that American airpower can endure, adapt, and prevail, no matter where the battle lines are drawn.