NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- The battle begins long before the first jet takes off…before boots hit the ground. It starts in dimly lit control rooms, inside airborne command centers, and through encrypted radio transmissions where leaders make split-second decisions that mean the difference between success and failure.
At Red Flag 25-2, the premier air combat training exercise designed to simulate large-scale conflict, Command and Control is more than a function. It is the lifeblood of modern warfare. Without it, the fight cannot happen.
"People see the fight, the dogfights, the missile launches, but they don't see us," said Capt. Benisha Simpson, 963rd Airborne Air Control Squadron, air battle manager. "They don't realize that none of it happens without us directing, coordinating, and making sure that every moving part functions as a whole."
This is the story of the invisible force that binds every operation together.
When most people think of air combat, they think of fighter pilots. They don't see the unseen voices guiding them through the fight. Air battle managers, weapons directors, intelligence analysts, and Marine air support operators work in unison to turn disjointed assets into a lethal warfighting machine.
"We are the chessboard," said 1st Lt. Melanie Wittick, an air battle manager aboard an E-3 Sentry. "The pilots are the chess pieces. Without us, there's no strategy, just pieces moving blindly across the board."
At the heart of the air battle is the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, a flying command center that provides real-time battlefield awareness. Equipped with advanced radar and communications systems, AWACS aircraft act as the eyes and ears of the fight, detecting threats and directing friendly forces to engage or evade.
"Pilots can only see what's in front of them," said Capt. Patrick Ford, 963rd AACS, air battle manager. "We see everything. We see the whole battlespace and tell them what they can't see, what's beyond their radar range, what's maneuvering to kill them, and how to avoid it."
The Marine Corps Air Support Squadrons mirror this function on the ground, providing Command and Control capabilities from tactical operations centers. Capt. Justin Young, executive officer of Air Defense Company Bravo, Marine Air Support Squadron 2, described their role as ensuring that fighters can operate safely, manage traffic, and battle-track threats beyond visual range.
Lance Cpl. Alia Green, an air support operator with Marine Air Support Squadron 3, spent Red Flag conducting surveillance and maintaining airspace awareness. She described the challenge of monitoring aircraft movements and ensuring that flight paths remained deconflicted in the chaos of battle. Her previous experience in virtual simulations like Coalition Virtual Flag had helped her grasp the fundamentals, but nothing compared to doing it live.
"So much happens at once," Green said. "You have to process information fast. You have to be right. A mistake could mean a midair collision, or worse, striking friendly forces."
Decision superiority is the difference between winning and losing a fight. Information moves from ground-based intelligence cells to airborne command centers, then to the fighters and bombers executing the mission. Every decision is based on a constant data flow, tracking friendly forces, enemy positions, and threats that emerge without warning.
Lt. Mackenzie Mack, the weapons tactics officer in charge at Marine Air Support Squadron 2, emphasized the importance of trust. Red Flag brought together units that had never worked with one another before, forcing Marines, airmen, sailors, and coalition partners to operate as a single team.
"We had to learn how each other worked," Mack said. "We had to learn how to communicate. If we don't trust each other, people die. It's that simple."
Trust also defines the relationship between pilots and controllers. In the cockpit, a fighter pilot sees only what is immediately ahead. They rely on command and control to clear the battle and guide them toward threats and away from danger. Capt. Jewell Smith, section lead for crew 3 of the 728th Battle Management Control Squadron, described the job as providing a second set of eyes for the pilots.
"They're expecting to hear us," Smith said. "They need us. If they don't hear a voice on the radio, if they don't have that situational awareness, they're flying blind. They don't know what's coming."
For intelligence teams, the job starts before the fight begins. Airman 1st Class Jayden Johnson, an intelligence specialist, works to build situational awareness before aircraft even leave the ground. He analyzes enemy tactics, movements, and potential threats, ensuring that pilots go into battle with an edge.
"We study everything," Johnson said. "We track what the enemy does. We look at their patterns. The more we know, the better prepared we are. The more our pilots know, the better their chances of surviving."
Red Flag is designed to make mistakes happen in training, so they don't happen in war. Scenarios evolve in real-time, pushing Command and Control teams to react under pressure. Every mission builds on the one before, increasing complexity until the exercise culminates in a full-scale war scenario.
"We're not just practicing tactics," Ford said. "We're training decision-making. We're training our ability to process information, to communicate clearly, and to execute under pressure. That's what wins wars."
Col. Voigt, 552nd Air Control Wing commander, emphasizes Command and Control's irreplaceable role in air combat.
"America does not go to combat without air power, and air power cannot happen without battle management command and control. It's not been the aircraft we've flown or the ground-based technology. It has always been men and women of the U.S. Air Force providing the best BMC2 on the planet. We have always been there and will always be there moving forward."
By the end of Red Flag, trust is no longer a question. It is an expectation. The pilots know that when they check in, someone is watching their back. The controllers know that the information they provide will be acted on without hesitation. The intelligence teams know that their analysis shapes the fight before it begins.
The battle doesn't start in the cockpit. It starts in the unseen world of Command and Control, where information becomes action, and chaos becomes victory.