Photo By Master Sgt. Timothy Chacon | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Catalina Medina, special warfare mission support, 116th Air...... read more read more
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The 116th Air Support Operations Squadron, part of the Washington Air National Guard, demonstrated the cutting edge of Air Force Special Warfare during Exercise Sentry North 2025 at Volk Filed, Wisconsin May, 31 to June,14, 2025. They trained alongside ASOS units from Pennsylvania, Kansas and Georgia in a full-scale, multi-domain exercise designed to push the limits of dynamic targeting and distributed command and control. The exercise tested operating in contested and communications-degraded scenarios with fifth-generation aircraft support.
“This exercise validated where we’re going as a career field,” said Lt. Col. Tim O’Mahoney, commander of the 116th ASOS. “We are taking what we have always been good at, communication, and building a model that brings forward sensing and effects, command and control, integration and real-time target updates to the Air Force kill chain, all while maintaining a low signature to aid in survivability.”
At the center of this evolution is distributed command and control. DC2 is a major shift from traditional models where ASOS teams operated in direct proximity to conventional Army headquarters. The 116th’s teams can now operate in forward, mobile environments, supported by advanced communications with reduced electronic signatures.
“In the past, our command and control elements were co-located with Army Division or Corps Headquarters in the rear echelon. Now, we’re building C2 nodes that are smaller, more mobile, and more agile,” said O’Mahoney. “We’re taking that capability of networking, voice, and data connectivity and putting it in a smaller package that can move and survive in austere, high threat environments” that can move and survive in austere, high-threat environments.”
These mobile C2 elements are capable of merging real-time battlefield data gathered from dispersed sensing and effects teams who are pushed deep into contested areas. Once collected, that information is verified and packaged by the forward C2 team and sent directly to the Theater Air Control System for immediate use by air assets in the region.
“This is how we participate in opening and closing kill chains,” said O’Mahoney. “Our teams are identifying moving targets, capturing their signatures, and passing that data forward so the aircraft coming in have the most accurate picture possible.”
Distributed command and control creates a scalable, resilient approach that offers flexibility and lethality while minimizing vulnerabilities.
“One of the biggest challenges is combining all of that capability of communications, sensors, power, people and getting it on the road, all while keeping it small,” O’Mahoney said. “Survivability in the next fight depends on how small your electronic signature is. That’s what we’re training for.”
A critical enabler of this distribution model is the principle of mission command, a philosophy that emphasizes trust, intent-based orders, and the empowerment of subordinate leaders to act decisively.
“We’re giving our teams the freedom to make smart decisions in the moment, based on mission needs,” O’Mahoney said. “That kind of trust and autonomy is what makes distributed operations possible, especially when communications are limited or contested.”
The closer service members get to the battle's edge the quicker the decisions must be made to ensure mission success and reduce exposure to threats. Pushing the decision making to the tactical level allows teams the flexibility needed to react to threats and keep effects on time and on target.
Volk Field and its associated range complex provided a uniquely valuable training ground, offering variable target sets and the freedom to execute full-spectrum mission planning.
“Here we can actually see targets, move on them in the field, and report real-time data,” said O’Mahoney. “It’s not procedural, it’s dynamic. That means our teams can mission plan, infiltrate, sense, and act in a way that mirrors what they’ll face in future operations.”
The 116th and its partner units were responsible for multiple target areas of interest each day, some involving mobile or electronic emitters, requiring rapid observation and correlation between reconnaissance teams, the mobile C2 units and theater intelligence. Once confirmed, targets were targeted by aircraft using updated mission data provided just minutes before engagement.
“This is about being able to send new or refined target information to an aircraft while it’s enroute sometimes by voice, sometimes by data link,” said O’Mahoney. “Pushing that data in near real-time ensures every strike counts and we get good effects on the target.”
According to O’Mahoney, Sentry North 2025 marked the first time the 116th has fully integrated all mission elements in a realistic training environment. Previously, most exercises were limited to part-task training, where units operated in isolation. This time, they operated together from planning to execution and debrief, to ensure lessons were captured prior to the next mission.
“We took high-level mission guidance, broke it into mission-type orders, pushed it to our C2 teams, and down to the sensing and effects teams,” said O’Mahoney. “That level of integration, end to end, hasn’t been done before at this scale in the National Guard.”
The success of the exercise also underscored the need for more frequent collaboration between ASOS units, many of which are developing complementary capabilities in parallel without regular joint integration.
“We’ve been training in silos,” said O’Mahoney. “What this showed us is that knowledge sharing and repetition are what will make us truly lethal. We need to find ways to replicate this on smaller scales more often as a guard TACP enterprise.”
Looking ahead, O’Mahoney sees this kind of training as essential for the Air Force’s ability to project power in future conflict zones where anti-access/area-denial threats are prominent.
“Our job is to expand the networked battlefield,” he said. “We bring intelligence, targeting data, and mission agility to the front edge, at a time when that edge is harder and harder to reach.”
Beyond tactics, Sentry North 2025 also provided clarity on equipment requirements. With technology evolving rapidly and their mission adapting, identifying the right gear to support DC2 and sensing missions is critical.
“We learned a lot about the tools we need for the future fight, not just the skills.” said O’Mahoney. “What we take from this exercise will drive our training and modernization plans for the next three to five years.”
As Sentry North wrapped up, it was made very clear to the 116th ASOS that distributed command and control works at scale and brings a new level of lethality and accuracy to the battlefield.
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2025 14:35 |
| Story ID: | 546277 |
| Location: | WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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