Overview

AFD35’s insights will not remain academic. In Phase II, these discoveries and emerging concepts are rigorously tested through multi-domain wargames designed to simulate contested environments, future force structures, and adversary responses. Wargaming is the critical proving ground to evaluate the utility, risks, and doctrinal viability of each concept before integration into Air Force Foundational Doctrine Publications (AFDPs).

Adaptive Development: Dynamic Experimentation for Doctrinal Relevance

Wargames under AFD35 embrace adaptive development, iterating scenarios to account for emerging insights and participant observations. Each game is structured with doctrinal objectives and executed by joint planning experts to ensure realism, relevance, and direct applicability to the warfighter. This adaptive approach enables:

• Rapid adjustment of scenario variables to test additional doctrinal stress points
• Reframing of planning assumptions to validate flexibility and resilience
• Immediate identification of capability or concept gaps that require refinement

Red Team Focus: Predicting Adversary Futures

Central to each wargame is a robust Red Team element, designed to:

• Emulate peer and near-peer adversary doctrines, tactics, and strategic behaviors
• Integrate culturally guided perspectives that reflect adversary values, decision hierarchies, and risk tolerances
• Project disruptive future capabilities, allowing Blue Teams to assess operational vulnerabilities and doctrinal shortfalls

This ensures that outcomes are not shaped solely by U.S. concepts of warfare but are stress-tested against realistic, competitive adversary models.

Culturally Guided Perspectives in Warfare

Warfare is as much about human will and cultural framing as it is about technologies and platforms. AFD35 wargames incorporate culturally guided perspectives to:

• Examine how different value systems impact operational decisions
• Understand how adversaries interpret deterrence, escalation, and signaling
• Explore doctrinal implications of operating alongside or against culturally diverse coalition partners and adversaries

This perspective deepens the doctrinal insights derived from each scenario, ensuring recommendations are strategically informed and globally relevant.

Scenario Design: From Edge Cases to Operational Integration

Possible Scenario-driven simulations:

• Blue vs. Red matchups to reveal doctrinal stress points in competitive settings
• AI-driven air tasking and autonomy to examine accelerated tempo and decision delegation
• Quantum spoofing and denial to test resilience in cyberspace and C2 structures
• Swarm saturation attacks to explore mass, deception, and adaptive countermeasure doctrines

Observers collect and tag doctrinal challenges in real time using the LeMay Doctrine Watchboard toolset, creating immediate data streams for doctrinal refinement.

Narrowing Outcomes: Deliverables for the AFD35 Symposium

Wargaming outcomes are not standalone solutions; they are refined into actionable deliverables that feed the AFD35 Symposium, including:

Air Force Doctrine Notes (AFDNs) capturing rapid insights and immediate doctrinal recommendations
LeMay Academic Series Papers providing deep analytical dives into scenario dilemmas and conceptual gaps
Doctrinal Planning Tools such as checklists, templates, and scenario injects for Air Component planners
Senior Leader Briefs summarizing wargame-derived recommendations for operational and strategic decision-makers
Symposium Readiness Reports distilling key tested concepts for debate, refinement, and endorsement

Why This Matters

Proofing our efforts through a wargame ensures doctrine is not speculative, and is shaped in conflict conditions, validated through realistic adversary models, and translated into warfighter-ready frameworks that strengthen the United States Air Force’s ability to compete, deter, and win in an increasingly contested future.