Bamboo Eagle 25-3 Tests Joint Command in Synthetic Battlespace at Kirtland Air Force Base

From July 22 to August 8, 2025, the most sophisticated joint command exercise in recent memory unfolded not on a battlefield, but inside a high-tech simulation center at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bamboo Eagle 25-3 didn’t fire a single bullet — yet it may have shaped the future of American warfare more than many real-world operations. Hosted by the 705th Combat Training Squadron, the exercise used a live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) environment to simulate contested, degraded, and chaotic combat scenarios where communication lines fail, enemy jamming disrupts radar, and split-second decisions determine victory or defeat. No lives were at risk. No aircraft were lost. But the stakes? As high as it gets.

The Synthetic Battlefield That Feels Real

At the heart of the exercise was the Distributed Mission Operations Center (DMOC) — a nerve center built not for display, but for pressure. Here, Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel sat side by side, not as separate branches, but as one integrated command team. They weren’t watching a simulation. They were living it. Through headsets and holographic displays, they tracked enemy movements, coordinated drone strikes, redirected air support, and managed electronic warfare — all in real time, under simulated cyberattacks and signal blackouts.

"The DMOC enables mission command by offering a safe, synthetic mission set where the BMC2 community can execute commander’s intent without real-world risk," said Major David Blessman, the exercise director. "This is where we integrate at scale with the joint force to sharpen deterrence and ensure we’re ready to fight and win, if called."

Warfighters, Not Just Observers

What made Bamboo Eagle 25-3 different from past drills wasn’t just the tech — it was the people. Lieutenant Colonel David Jones, commander of the 705th Combat Training Squadron/DMOC, noted that frontline operators — pilots, ground controllers, cyber specialists — didn’t just participate. They designed the scenarios. "Warfighters integrated into the DMOC’s LVC environment, directly shaping scenario development, execution, and assessment," he explained. "Their presence helped drive realism, cultural fluency, and collaborative planning."

That’s critical. Too often, training exercises are designed by staff officers who’ve never been in a cockpit or a forward command post. Here, the people who’d actually be making decisions under fire had a say in what the chaos looked like. One scenario involved a naval task force under cyberattack, with air support delayed by jammed datalinks. A Marine forward observer had to improvise a targeting solution using only handheld radios and satellite imagery — a situation that’s become alarmingly common in modern conflicts.

Command Structure: Centralized, But Not Micromanaged

The exercise operated under a framework called "Centralized Command, Distributed Control, Decentralized Execution." In plain terms: senior leaders set the objective. Mid-level commanders decided how to allocate resources. And frontline teams — often hundreds of miles apart — made tactical calls on their own, within broad parameters. This isn’t just doctrine. It’s survival.

"In a real fight, you won’t have time to call headquarters for approval," said one anonymous Air Force battle manager who participated. "You’ll have a 90-second window to decide whether to launch a strike, hold back, or redirect. This exercise forced us to trust each other’s judgment — and that trust doesn’t come from manuals. It comes from sweating through the same simulation, over and over."

Why This Matters Beyond the Base

Kirtland’s DMOC isn’t just a training ground. It’s a national asset. The U.S. military has spent over $1.2 billion since 2018 building this kind of synthetic training infrastructure — and Bamboo Eagle 25-3 was its most complex test yet. With near-peer adversaries like China and Russia investing heavily in electronic warfare and anti-access systems, the ability to rehearse in degraded environments isn’t optional. It’s existential.

Recent conflicts — from Ukraine to the Red Sea — have shown that command centers are now primary targets. If your network goes down, your weapons go blind. Bamboo Eagle 25-3 forced participants to operate without GPS, without secure comms, even without real-time intelligence feeds. And they still succeeded. That’s not luck. That’s preparation.

What Comes Next?

The lessons from this exercise are already being folded into the next iteration of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), the Pentagon’s flagship modernization effort. The 705th Combat Training Squadron plans to expand the DMOC’s capacity by 40% by 2026, adding space and cyber warfare nodes. Navy E-2D Hawkeye crews will join next year. So will British and Australian partners — a sign this isn’t just an American exercise anymore.

"We’re not training for the last war," said Major Blessman. "We’re training for the next one. And the next one won’t look like anything we’ve seen before."

Behind the Scenes: The Human Element

Beneath the screens and servers, the real breakthrough was cultural. For years, service branches operated in silos — Air Force planners didn’t understand Marine logistics, Navy commanders didn’t speak Army terminology. Bamboo Eagle 25-3 broke that down. By forcing joint teams to rely on each other in high-stress simulations, it built something no manual can teach: mutual respect.

"I used to think the Army was slow," admitted a Navy strike coordinator. "Then I saw them move a command post under simulated artillery fire — faster than my ship’s damage control team. I had to rethink everything."

That kind of shift doesn’t show up in after-action reports. But it shows up in the field — when a Marine calls for air support and the Air Force pilot answers not just with a call sign, but with understanding.