Photo By Sgt. 1st Class William Tanner | U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC)...... read more read more
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR– HICKAM, Hawaii – Units throughout the Indo-Pacific region came together to participate in the 2025 Pacific Simulation for Integrated Air and Missile Defense Modernization (PACSIM) at the Aloha Conference Center, located on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), Sept. 8-12, 2025.
During PACSIM, hosted by the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC), leaders from Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) command, U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) and Air and Missile Defense (AMD) experts and stakeholders, utilized constructive simulation, informed by the 94th AAMDC’s provided data, to support simulation goals and tabletop exercises.
“PACSIM allows the command to test and validate the effectiveness of new air defense capabilities and strategies in a controlled, simulated environment before real-world deployment,” said Sgt. 1st Class Edward Paterline, a 94th AAMDC Ballistic Missile Defense Asset Manager (BMD). “This helps identify strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement.”
The 2025 PACSIM allowed units to use low-fidelity simulation tools and vignettes to generate meaningful, real-world results.
“PACSIM demonstrates the potential for enhanced performance through the integration of new technologies and highlights opportunities for interoperability with host nation air defense systems,” said Lt. Col. Kurt Semon, the 94th AAMDC G-5 Plans and Force Management officer. “The exercise further illustrates how any shooter, any sensor integration can improve defense designs and optimize resource allocation by enabling a more effective defense posture.”
These types of events and conferences are in alignment with the Department of War’s (DoW ), formerly the Department of Defense (DoD), stance on bolstering missile defense with new sensors from earlier this year.
“The simulation showed how important early warning and detection is to Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD),” said Paterline. “Giving more time for leveraging the best shooter and sensor to our in-depth defense.”
The main purpose of the tabletop exercises and simulation events are to help compile data to inform future planning and defense design options.
“Lessons learned over the past week highlighted a paradigm shift needed in our air defense culture that allows threats to advance past maximum engagement range to enable interceptor conservation and increase engagements,” said Sermon. “Best sensor employing best effector as a new planning factor for defense designs.”
The lessons learned from events such as PACSIM not only help our Soldiers throughout IAMD better prepare for possible future conflicts, but it can help to hone the skills of officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) alike.
“For NCOs , PACSIM emphasizes the tactical importance of maintaining peak readiness and proficiency in operating and integrating early warning and detection systems,” said Paterline. “For officers, PACSIM highlights the strategic importance of investing in and optimizing early earning and detection capabilities.”
Enabling the DoW to have competent and capable attack strategies is of the utmost importance to our military leaders during these ever-evolving times for not only our military but for our service members throughout the world. Being able to respond at a moment’s notice with force, precision and intent is the overarching goal for events such as PACSIM.
Brig. Gen. William Parker, commanding general of the 94th AAMDC, addressed participants at PACSIM and emphasized what the evolution of air defenses means to Soldiers, leaders and the nation.
“This is an acceleration of capabilities in the hands of Soldiers,” said Parker. “This is our legacy – ‘Fight Tonight’.”
Ultimately, to reach these goals, our military must have the quantifiable data generated from these simulations to identify our limitations of current and future capabilities. We need to identify the vulnerabilities of our defended assets, while providing limited operational analysis for the development of future plan rewrites.
In short, our country’s military is facing an overall change in how it prepares for future conflicts. Its air and missile defense capabilities are foremost in the minds of its leadership as they continue to keep their service members on the edge of readiness and fit to ‘Fight Tonight.’
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2025 19:29 |
| Story ID: | 548228 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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