The US Air Force based in Okinawa, Japan, has allowed NHK to watch a training exercise based on a new strategy designed to disperse its forces in the event of a contingency.

In the drill conducted by the Air Force 18th Wing at its Kadena Air Base, personnel were trained to acquire a range of skills that they would not normally use in their specialties.

An NHK crew watched as equipment maintenance and cybersecurity specialists put up tents and antennas to set up a makeshift operational base. They were also seen practicing repelling an enemy force who tried to infiltrate while the base was being set up.

The strategic concept behind the training is known as Agile Combat Employment, or "ACE." The US Air Force developed the concept in response to recent advances in adversarial technologies that it thinks have placed US air bases at significantly increased risk.

ACE calls for dispersing combat power to other locations when the main operational base comes under enemy attack and becomes unusable. The training is aimed at ensuring operational continuity in a new environment with only limited resources and personnel.

Japan's Air Self-Defense Force took part in the drill for the first time, in a sign of increased cooperation.

The commander of the 18th Wing, Brigadier General David Eaglin, told NHK that the US Air Force is looking for places to disperse its combat power in the event they cannot return to where they've taken off.
He said he cannot say anything specific about where those dispersed locations might be. Asked about Japan specifically, General Eaglin said that it will be up to the US and Japanese governments to "negotiate whatever places those are."

The US Air Force website calls Kadena Air Base the hub of its airpower in the Pacific.