The system could revolutionise tactical air operations. This article was originally published on our Apex Defense partner site.

The US Air Force is seeking a tactical wargaming AI-based system that allows users to “campaign plan”, a senior official in the force announced at Apex Defense 2026 in Washington DC.

This requirement aims to address a gap in current mission planning tools that do not adequately support tactical-level planning or simulation, Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategy Integration and Requirements at Headquarters US Air Force, Thomas Lawhead, said at the event on 28 January. 

“Tactical units don't have a mission planning system that talks, lays out, and simulates” their next mission, he acknowledged, adding that this was identified during a discussion at a “command and control summit at Nellis Air Force Base… several weeks ago”.

This tactical requirement will form part of the US Air Force’s planned ‘WarMatrix’ cloud-based wargaming software, which the service is developing in partnership with industry, he continued.

A request for information (RFI) for this wider WarMatrix requirement was issued to industry in November from the service, specifically for a system capable of generating and running wargames at speeds up to 10,000 times faster than real time.

Explaining the broader WarMatrix vision, Lawhead said the US Air Force wants to run multiple wargame excursions, automate adjudication rather than relying on human controllers, and adjust capability parameters to better understand what “moves the needle” operationally.

This data will translate “over to our modelling and simulation efforts”, he added.

According to the RFI issued in November, the capability is required because the force “faces challenges, including the inability to answer critical questions about capabilities, courses of action analysis, or costing, due to a reliance on disconnected, outdated, and vendor-locked tools”. 

While professional wargaming has been a staple in the military since the 19th century, it is currently experiencing renewed interest, driven by AI’s ability to compress complex simulations that once took months into just hours. Enabling units and squadrons to tactically plan out their next mission could prove to be an operational game-changer, if effective.