EGLIN AFB, Fla.—In 1849, Austrian forces first used aircraft offensively by attaching bombs to paper hot air balloons during the siege of Venice.
In 1910, an American service member fired a Springfield rifle at a ground target from an early-model airplane, marking the first use of small-caliber artillery from an aircraft.
Now, in 2026, the 53d Wing is poised to deliver the next step of aerial dominance to the warfighter.
Quickly connecting Airmen with resources is essential to achieving the Wing’s vision of global air superiority, and that message was emphasized by Gen. Adrian Spain, commander of Air Combat Command, during his recent visit to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Along with Spain, ACC’s command chief, Chief Master Sgt. Jeremy Unterseher, toured Team Eglin, speaking with Airmen and learning about advancements to warfighter capabilities.
Operational test at the 53d Wing is evolving to meet the speed, complexity, and integration demands of modern warfare. No longer confined to platform-specific evaluations, the wing is driving a shift toward mission-level testing that replicates the realities of contested, multi-domain operations.
By blending live, virtual, and constructive environments, Airmen can stress new systems in ways that mirror real-world threats while accelerating the delivery of capability to the field.
This approach ensures operational test is not a final checkpoint in acquisition, but a continuous feedback loop that sharpens tactics, validates performance, and informs rapid modernization decisions. To gain a firsthand perspective on the wing's modernization efforts, Spain flew in an F-15EX, one of the key platforms undergoing rigorous evaluation at Eglin.
The future of the 53d Wing is, in many ways, closely tied to the future of U.S. air dominance, Spain said.
“We are no longer operating in an unconstrained environment” he continued. “We need to approach our readiness and warfighting tasks with the presumption that everything we do will be contested by a credible adversary, and to keep our superiority—our advantage—within this new paradigm, we need to keep the factory-to-field pipeline as short and streamlined as possible. That’s why the mission of this wing is so important.”
While fielding new and more lethal capabilities is important,perfectingthem remains the critical underpinning of airpower, according to the command team. Spain and Unterseher stressed the importance of mastering your craft.
“Say you havethesuperlative aircraft—technically and engineeringly perfect. That’s great. But if you don’t know how to fix and fly it competently, you’re piloting a paperweight,” Unterseher said. “This applies to the complete gamut of jobs and specialties. In effect, we’re not the world’s greatest air force because we have the best planes. We’re the world’s greatest air force because we have the best Airmen.”
Airmanship, a term that captures much of what it means to be a productive and effective member of the U.S. Air Force, indeed took center stage during the command team’s visit, with a specific focus on connecting day-to-day operations at the 53d Wing to the overarching ACC mission of deterring, defending, projecting, and winning.
“As we look toward the future of Air Force operational test and evaluation, the 53d Wing remains indispensable to our success,” Spain said. “Their teams don’t just test systems, they help define what warfighting looks like across every domain, from fifth-generation fighters to advanced electronic warfare and integrated multi-domain tactics. Their work accelerates the delivery of cutting-edge capabilities to the joint force and ensures our warfighters have the confidence to prevail against any threat. The 53d Wing’s relentless focus on operational realism and innovation is central to keeping the Air Force lethal and ready for the challenges ahead.”
The 53d Wing mission goes beyond simply ensuring the Air Force’s most advanced capabilities are technologically superior—it delivers combat credibility on day one. From integrating next-generation sensors and weapons to refining data-sharing across joint and coalition partners, the Wing’s work directly shapes how the force will fight and win.
By pairing rigorous evaluation with an unrelenting focus on warfighter needs, the 53d Wing is helping build an operational test enterprise that is faster, more adaptive, and fully aligned with the demands of future conflict.