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USAFCENT launches new Combined Air and Space Ops Center

  • Published
  • By Capt. Frank Hartnett
  • U.S. AFCENT Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  It's midnight on the operations floor of the U.S. Air Forces Central Combined Air and Space Operations Center. At this time of night, the tempo usually takes a slight respite as the night crew takes command to oversee air operations over Afghanistan and Iraq.
But tonight is different.

Airmen, Soldiers, Marines and Sailors along with their Coalition partners from Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are busy standing up and launching the new CAOC and settling into their new surroundings.

Communications Airmen along with their contractor counterparts are pacing and walking through the aisles ready to tackle any problems that crop up. Senior leaders are watching the activities on the floor with anxious eyes, eager to see their new system take flight and carry on the effort of supporting ground forces.

Up in the battle cab, things are slightly different. The CAOC commander sits in a small room with a select group of advisors. This smaller portion of the CAOC houses the "targeting chain". This is a team of legal, intelligence and operations experts that provide air power advice to the commander. The air conditioner lightly hums while live Predator feeds are being displayed on multiple screens in the room.

On the floor, the activity is fast-paced as the technicians help the transition between the old and new operations centers.

"We physically moved 117 servers without additional manning," said Capt. Donnie Harp, director of operations for the Communications Support Team. "I felt it was a partnership between PMO and CST to make this a success."

This living weapon system is fueled by 160 miles of fiber optic cable, displays air operations on 2,325 monitors and speaks to the outside world on 871 non-secure phones and uses an additional 692 secure internet-based telephones to discuss mission sensitive information.

Standing watch over the hive of activity in the combat operations division is the night chief of combat operations, Navy Commander Scotty McDonald.

Commander McDonald is an F-18 pilot who was the commander of the Strike Fighter Weapons school for the Atlantic Fleet before assuming his new duties here at the CAOC.
"I had the fortune to work in the CAOC before," said Commander McDonald. "I think that what being a tactical aviator in this environment brings is the ability to think ahead and see what your decisions here will do to the guy in the cockpit."

The Commander was pleased with the progress made in setting up the new CAOC.
"We have a lot of smart, aggressive people so we are overcoming problems quickly."
Establishing the new operations center was a long term project that started five years ago.

"The old CAOC was meant to be a temporary facility as we changed locations from Prince Sultan Air Base," said Col. Jeff Brown, director of the transition program management office. "The host nation started construction in 2004 then we were handed the building in May 2008. That's when we started to make our modifications and get it ready."

"Most folks won't know we changed out, short of us telling them," said Colonel Brown.

"This new facility will bring new technologies and improved working conditions," said Maj. Gen. Stephen Hoog, deputy Combined Forces Air Component Commander. "But at the end of the day it is the people that makes the CAOC work, bringing airpower when and where its needed for the joint force commander."