Headquarters Air Force Futures introduced a a new human-machine teaming platform designed to support operational analysis and decision-making at its recent GE 26 Benchmark Wargame, which concluded on March 27.
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What Was the Scope of the GE 26 Wargame?
The U.S. Air Force said Tuesday the two-week wargame, hosted at Systems Planning and Analysis in Alexandria, Virginia, evaluated concepts, capabilities and force design for future conflict scenarios. More than 150 participants, including leaders from Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force Warfare Center, multi-service planners and allied representatives, executed over six 24-hour game-time moves using physics-based modeling and simulation-informed adjudication to assess performance under realistic conditions.
What Role Did WarMatrix Play in the Exercise?
The GE 26 Benchmark Wargame marked the first operational use of WarMatrix, a system developed by the Department of the Air Force to support wargaming activities. The platform integrates data, models and workflows while applying artificial intelligence to accelerate analysis. It is designed to maintain human oversight while enhancing transparency, auditability and the ability to track decisions and outcomes during simulations. WarMatrix enhances the wargaming process by capturing key decisions, evidence and analytical outputs, creating a more integrated and traceable environment.
What Were the Outcomes of the Event?
The exercise delivered key insights for Air Force leadership on future capabilities and force design, while generating a robust dataset for post-game analysis and further study. WarMatrix also served as an initial operating concept test, demonstrating how computational precision can address challenges related to speed and integration in large-scale simulations.
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