MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan – Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), alongside U.S. allies and partners, launched Resolute Force Pacific 2025 (REFORPAC), the largest contingency response exercise ever conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the Indo-Pacific region, July 10, 2025.
REFORPAC will involve more than 350 aircraft and feature U.S. Air Force members alongside colleagues from partner nations and other branches of the U.S. military. The exercise aims to demonstrate PACAF’s ability to generate, sustain and adapt airpower in a contested environment while working alongside regional allies.
“This exercise is about sharpening our edge and proving that our Airmen can project combat airpower anytime, anywhere, alongside our allies,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Paul Davidson, 35th Fighter Wing commander. “This wing is all-in, showing what contingency readiness looks like in the Pacific Theater.”
Standing up in support of REFORPAC, the 35th Air Expeditionary Wing is composed of Misawa personnel and temporary duty members from multiple installations across the globe. The 35th AEW is playing a pivotal role by generating sorties, enabling agile combat employment, and sustaining high-tempo operations from one of the Air Force’s northernmost forward locations. Teams across the wing are executing critical tasks such as flightline operations, munitions loading, hot-pit refueling, combat search and rescue training, and distributed logistics support.
These efforts contribute directly to the exercise’s focus on contested operations and rapid adaptation, ensuring U.S. and allied forces can fight under degraded conditions, move quickly and sustain missions without guaranteed access to traditional logistics and infrastructure.
“We recently stood up the new 35th Munitions Squadron, merged our fighter squadrons into one cohesive unit, and started sharing our resources with participating REFORPAC units,” said Davidson. “Together with our Japanese allies, we’re testing our combined capabilities to defend Japan from any adversary."
U.S. Airmen across the Pacific are also practicing command and control at scale, making fast-paced decisions while coordinating across units, domains and international boundaries. This level of complexity offers a realistic test of how well U.S. and partner forces can operate together under contingency conditions.
“From weapons loaders to fuels specialists, pilots, planners, medical, security, airfield managers, civil engineers, maintainers and everything in between, every Airman here plays a role in building a force that can respond immediately and effectively in any environment,” said Davidson.
As REFORPAC continues, the 35th AEW will demonstrate PACAF’s ability to lead, integrate and prevail alongside partners committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
REFORPAC is part of the first-in-a-generation Department-Level Exercise series, a new way of conducting operations in a contested, dynamic environment to build capabilities making a stronger, more lethal deterrent force. The DLE series encompasses all branches of the Department of Defense, along with Allies and partners, employing more than 350 joint and coalition aircraft and more than 12,000 members at more than 50 locations across 3,000 miles.