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U.S. Space Force and Air Force Use AI Together in First Complex Command

Chimera readability score 72 out of 100, Expert reading level.

mbers of the United States Space Force and Air Force have used advanced artificial intelligence together for the first time in a complex command-and-control experiment designed to accelerate combat decision-making.
Around 100 Guardians, Airmen, and civilians gathered in Las Vegas in May for the two-week Multi-Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming, or MASH. The effort builds on previous Decision Advantage Sprints for Human-Machine Teaming (DASH) experiments and is helping to build a “blueprint” for future multi-domain operations, according to a release from the 505th Command and Control Wing.
Retired Air Force Col. George Dougherty, author of “Beast in the Machine: How Robotics and AI Will Transform Warfare and the Future of Human Conflict,” said the DASH and MASH events are requirements-development experiments conducted by the Air Force to clarify future directions for AI-enabled battle management. He noted that the events use live experiments with innovators from defence tech companies working alongside uniformed personnel, a novel approach to solving the technical problems of integrating AI into battle management.
Guardians with the 16th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron under Mission Delta 3, out of Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, had previously observed DASH experiments but had not operated in the fast-paced simulations. This time, they worked with Airmen and software developers, using AI tools to address problems in the air, space, cyber, maritime, and ground domains. Those tools included Large Language Models, agentic data platforms, agentic workflows and machine learning, according to U.S. Air Force Col. John Ohlund, the Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team director.
“The Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control Campaign Plan demands that we make better, timelier decisions,” Ohlund said. “By incorporating AI into our battle management architecture, we are ensuring our operators can rapidly process vast amounts of data and deliver lethal effects faster than ever before.”
What Happens in Vegas
MASH participants worked the experiment at the unclassified Shadow Operations-Nellis, hosted by the ABMS-CFT, which partnered with the Air Force Research Lab and the 805th Combat Training Squadron. U.S. Space Force 1st Lt. Abby Warner, 16th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron deputy flight commander, said working with Air Force battle managers opened her eyes to how the air domain tackles these challenges, particularly regarding tempo, synchronization and rapid courses of action iteration.
USSF Col. Teina Stallings-Lilly, ABMS-CFT Deputy Director for Space Operations, said the integration work is helping build the Department of the Air Force Battle Network. The DAF Battle Network is the service’s contribution to the overarching Combined Joint-All Domain Command and Control network, which seeks to tie all information streams from any sensor to any shooter across the entire Pentagon.
Air Force Lt. Col. Corey Ellsworth, ABMS-CFT integration lead, said the battle management software used in MASH is “directly translatable” beyond DAF to the Navy, Marine Corps and Army.
Growing and Fielding Capabilities
Throughout 2025, the Air Force conducted three DASH events in April, July, and September that culminated in DASH 3, in which USAF, Canada and the United Kingdom personnel tested and refined AI tools for their command-and-control networks. In that third iteration, seven teams worked with operators to test multiple decision advantage tools to quickly build courses of actions through multiple pathways.
For the MASH experiment, six industry software development teams worked with ShOC-N’s military software development team on tools that tackled three decision functions: recommending actions against a target; ranking capabilities best suited to each effect; and adding additional capabilities needed throughout an execution window to support a principal match. Airmen and Guardians worked to “stress-test” the decision logic used by their AI tools to identify limitations and provide feedback to developers.
“This is a true co-creation environment where software developers work directly with warfighters to ensure the tools meet their exact needs,” said Elizabeth Frost, AFRL MASH lead.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Adam Sochia, 552nd Operations Support Squadron ABM, said that a week prior, it took his team 50 minutes to an hour to get one tasking done. “With the help of the tool, we were able to get five or six taskings done,” he said.
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Sentinel — Human

Confidence

The text appears to be high-quality, fact-based reporting grounded in specific military initiatives, exhibiting strong institutional coherence consistent with human journalistic standards.

Signals Detected
low severity: Sentence length variance shows natural variation and rhetorical flow; the text uses varied sentence structures, not a uniform rhythm.
low severity: The text exhibits strong contextual coherence, linking specific military programs (MASH, DASH) directly to high-level doctrinal goals (Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control), suggesting a unified human narrative focus.
low severity: The attribution of quotes is varied, and the text does not rely on mechanical rotation of transition words; the structure flows logically from experiment setup to results to implications.
low severity: Claims are highly specific regarding military programs and personnel names, requiring deep institutional knowledge. The context feels grounded in verifiable, specific program details rather than generalized LLM narrative.
Human Indicators
The integration of very specific, nested military acronyms (ABMS-CFT, DAF Battle Network, 505th Command and Control Wing) requires contextual specificity that often betrays generalized AI output.
The tone is focused on process and systems development (co-creation environment, stress-test), which aligns with human operational reporting rather than purely descriptive synthesis.