The Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate recently hosted a collaborative wargame with its sister AFRL unit, the Munitions Directorate, at Kirtland Air Force Base. The Directed Energy and Kinetic Energy Directed Energy Utility Concept Experiment, or DEKE DEUCE, explored synergies between directed energy and kinetic concepts in the future battlespace.
"DEKE DEUCE required extensive collaboration between dozens of scientists and engineers from both directorates over a period of more than nine months," said Dr. Darl Lewis, DEUCE lead and wargaming principal investigator. "The Office of Naval Research also collaborated extensively in the lead-up to playing their Elektra battle management concept alongside those of AFRL."
The experiment placed pilots, weapon systems officers and air battle managers in a series of virtual vignettes exploring mission sets that relate to the combined use of DE and KE systems, tying together previous studies and analysis focused on an airborne high energy laser pod and two future kinetic concepts.
Orlando de la Garza, Ross Dudley, Jeffrey MacGillivray, and Joe Aldrich observe operations and collect data during Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy and Kinetic Energy Directed Energy Concept Utility Experiment (DEKE DEUCE) held at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. Jan. 24-28, 2022. The experiment explored synergies between directed energy and kinetic concepts in the future battlespace. (U.S. Air Force photo by Allen Winston)
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