- The ABMS cross-functional team held its first MASH experiment in May
- It was designed to test industry’s AI-enabled battle management capabilities
- Hear from ABMS CFT Lead Col. Ohlund at the 2026 Air and Space Summit!
The U.S. Air Force identified faster decision-making timelines and better human-machine teaming capability during a recent battle management experiment, DefenseScoop reported on July 2.
The service’s Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team held its first Multi-Decision Advantage Sprint for Human Machine Teaming, or MASH, experiment in May. It was a two-week event curated to evaluate and test industry’s AI-powered battle management capabilities.
“The data analysis is ongoing, but initial trends strongly mirror our previous successes, demonstrating a significant acceleration in decision-making speed,” said Col. John Ohlund, ABMS CFT director and a panelist at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30, told DefenseScoop. “Ultimately, this validates the potential for human-machine teaming to substantially expand the volume of viable options available to commanders during high-tempo operations.”
Get exclusive investment insights into advanced command-and-control technologies from Ohlund and other top federal officials at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30! Examine mission thread engineering for operational advantage and open architectures enabling rapid air and space integration during the Orchestration Across Air and Space Domains panel discussion featuring Ohlund and other distinguished officials, including:
- Steven “Bucky” Butow, Defense Innovation Unit senior advisor to the director and executive committee member
- Joseph Fraier, Air Force senior industrial policy analyst
- Dr. Merrick Watchorn (pending confirmation), Air Force chief cyber, quantum and cognitive information services architect
- Randy Fields, Ultra I&C chief technology officer
- Ilya Levtov, Craft CEO
What Was the Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming?
The Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming, or DASH, was a USAF experiment held in 2024. Here, industry software units were requested to develop AI microservices targeting subfunctions, or smaller sections, of the command-and control process.
AI capabilities were developed during the DASH by teams comprised of industry and USAF software engineers. They stress-tested their custom AI tools to automate and speed up segments of the air battle management mission.
Ohlund said the AI tools were designed to automate a trio of foundational decision-making functions, accelerating how operators understand and execute challenging data streams.
“Specifically, they analyzed incoming information to identify and categorize potential entities, matched the best available joint capabilities to address those situations and then generated multiple, optimized courses of action,” he said.
Why Was the MASH Experiment Significant?
The MASH experiment in May was one of the first Shadow Operations Center-Nellis, or ShOC-N, test events to have members from other military services involved. Guardians brought space credentials while also showing that both the Air and Space forces have comparable battle management issues despite operating in unique environments.
Ohlund said this demonstrated that the foundational need for fast, parallel decision-making is necessary whatever the environment.
“Their unique perspectives helped ensure the battle management software was built from the ground up to support a truly integrated, multi-domain force,” he said.
The DASH’s design necessitated that each simulation experimented with three different microservices specifically developed by industry teams for unique subfunctions. Ohlund said a major achievement occurred when the USAF used an orchestration application created by the Air Force Research Laboratory to ensure that individual companies could easily share ontologies, data and metadata.
What Is the Advanced Battle Management System?
The Advanced Battle Management System is responsible for fielding aerial and terrestrial digital infrastructure, software and applications, and distributed nodes for C2 and battle management for the DAF Battle Network. This is a system-of-systems that is part of the Pentagon’ s command, control and battle management, or C2BM, capabilities.
