Photo By Senior Airman Adrien Tran | A Boeing Defence Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, a production representative test...... read more read more
Subscribe
ROTA, Northern Mariana Islands — Airmen assigned to the 21st Air Expeditionary Wing and the Experimental Operations Unit worked in tandem to support and integrate the Boeing Defence Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat into Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 on Rota, Northern Mariana Islands, June 21 to July 1, 2026.
Throughout the exercise, the EOU served as the lead organization for Collaborative Combat Aircraft experimentation while the 21st AEW provided base operating support and sustainment through power production, force protection and communication support.
“The EOU conducts rapid experimentation with CCA prototypes to provide direct warfighter feedback to CCA and mission-autonomy vendors,“ said U.S. Air Force Maj. Daniel Pesich, EOU combat aircraft detachment officer in charge, “The unit is uniquely designed to take emerging technologies like the CCA and place them into operationally relevant environments much earlier than traditional acquisition programs.”
The EOU’s objective in VS26 was to learn what it takes to deploy and sustain CCA in austere environments. Through both successes and failures, the EOU takes lessons learned to shape the future of airpower.
“This is the first of many large force exercises the EOU will participate in with the CCA,” said Pesich, “We will build from this event with the intent of quickly integrating with the force more each time.”
Working alongside the EOU, the 21st AEW enabled CCA operations by rapidly establishing and sustaining the expeditionary infrastructure required to support the MQ-28.
“The ability of our team to work in the background is the foundation necessary for MQ-28 operations,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Nathaniel White, 21st CABS commander, “without power the ground control unit wouldn’t be functional, without fuel the power wouldn’t be supplied, and without communications we wouldn’t be able to provide the MQ-28 operators the necessary capabilities to plan.”
As a unit of action, the 21st AEW is trained to conduct and execute Agile Combat Employment in austere locations. The unit demonstrated its ability to rapidly establish and sustain decentralized operations in accordance with ACE principles.
“We are operating across four islands within the Guam cluster,” said White. “At each location we are providing airfield support ranging from airfield management, refueling and defueling aircraft, air logistics, and force protection.”
Together, the 21st AEW and the EOU multiple operational sorties over an 11 day period, demonstrating the Air Force's ability to rapidly integrate emerging capabilities into expeditionary operations in support of the ACE concept and focus on maintaining a credible, combat-ready force.
Valiant Shield is a biennial, multinational, joint exercise focused on integrating the joint force in a multi-domain environment. This routine training fosters real-world proficiency in sustaining joint forces through detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace in response to a range of mission areas.
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.06.2026 12:59 |
| Story ID: | 571694 |
| Location: | ROTA, MP |
| Web Views: | 12 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 21st AEW, EOU demonstrate expeditionary MQ-28 operations during Valiant Shield 2026, by SrA Adrien Tran, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
