Headquarters Air Force Futures (A5/7) concluded the GE 26 Benchmark Wargame March 27, 2026, marking a significant step forward in how the Air Force conducts operational analysis and decision-informed wargaming.
Hosted at Systems Planning and Analysis in Alexandria, Virginia, the two-week event brought together more than 150 participants, including Pacific Air Forces leadership, the Air Force Warfare Center, multi-service and allied planners, senior role players, and technical experts. The wargame delivered a rigorous, fast-paced environment designed to test concepts, capabilities and force design considerations critical to future conflict scenarios.
A defining feature of the wargame was the inaugural use of WarMatrix - an active wargaming environment - transitioning the platform from development into operational application.
WarMatrix is a human-machine teaming system built by the Department of the Air Force to enhance wargaming and operational analysis. Rather than replacing traditional methods, the system integrates existing models, data and workflows while accelerating analysis through artificial intelligence - keeping human judgment central to planning and adjudication.
Designed by wargamers for wargamers, WarMatrix provides transparency, auditability and speed, enabling decision-makers to better understand assumptions, outcomes and tradeoffs.
During the event, participants successfully executed more than six 24-hour game-time moves leveraging physics-based modeling and simulation-informed adjudication, ensuring outcomes were grounded in realistic operational conditions.
Equally important, the wargame produced decision-informative insights for the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force on future concepts, capabilities and force design. The event also generated a robust dataset to support post-game analysis and follow-on analytical excursions.
The use of WarMatrix enabled a more connected and traceable wargaming process - capturing decisions, evidence and analytical outputs in ways not previously possible at this scale. Its architecture allowed for faster scenario development, repeatable adjudication, and improved collaboration across joint and coalition partners.
The wargame also served as an initial operating concept test for WarMatrix, while evaluating complementary tools for potential integration into the broader wargaming ecosystem.
Leaders emphasized that WarMatrix represents a deliberate evolution in wargaming - not a replacement of proven methodologies, but a force multiplier that enhances them. By combining computational precision with human insight, the system addresses longstanding challenges associated with large-scale simulations, including transparency, integration and speed.
As the Air Force continues to refine its approach to operational analysis, GE 26 demonstrated how advanced tools, integrated teams and disciplined wargaming can deliver timely, credible insights to senior leaders informing decisions that will shape the future force.
