Information has always been a battlefield advantage, but as emerging technologies reshape the defense landscape, Air Force network modernization becomes dependent on how quickly organizations can process and act on that information. The Department of War continues to build even more distributed ecosystems for testing, training, and operations, making resilient connectivity now a prerequisite for maintaining decision superiority across every domain. In this article, our colleagues at Government Technology Insider take a look at how lit and dark fiber are helping the United States Air Force build the high-performance, secure network infrastructure needed to support the mission.
Modern defense research does not live in one place anymore. A test might begin in a lab simulation, move through a distributed cloud environment, integrate data from remote and satellite-connected systems, get validated against real-world sensor data at a range, and then loop back for refinement, all within a single development cycle. What was once a linear process has become a constantly connected ecosystem of experimentation, where data has to move securely and seamlessly across multiple environments at once.
For the United States Air Force and the broader defense community, fiber is becoming part of that research environment itself rather than simply the infrastructure supporting it. Lit fiber locations deliver rapidly deployable, managed connectivity across bases, labs, and cloud environments. Dark fiber gives organizations deeper control over security, performance, and network configuration. Increasingly, defense organizations are using both together to support evolving operational and training demands.
Building Networks Around the Mission
The traditional distinction between lit and dark fiber still matters, but defense priorities are changing the conversation. Instead of treating the two as competing approaches, military organizations are beginning to view them as complementary tools within a comprehensive modernization strategy.
Lit fiber enables Air Force organizations to quickly connect distributed testing and research environments without waiting for fully customized infrastructure builds. In fast moving research and development (R&D) environments where workloads evolve rapidly, that flexibility matters.
“One of the biggest shifts we are seeing from defense customers is the need for greater control inside the network itself,” said Cung Nguyen, Solutions Engineer at Verizon. “Organizations want the ability to shape performance, security, and management around the mission instead of forcing the mission to conform to the limitations of the network.” That level of flexibility is becoming more important as Air Force testing environments grow more distributed and data intensive.
Supporting the Next Generation of Air Force Training
As the Air Force expands the use of immersive and distributed training environments, the network must support far more than traditional communication traffic. Virtual reality and simulation-based training systems are being adopted to help airmen train on maintenance procedures, operational scenarios, and mission workflows, without requiring every exercise to take place in a live setting. Such applications require high bandwidth with low latencies.
In many cases, instructors, trainees, and systems may all operate from different locations while interacting in real time, creating a very different type of network requirement. These environments depend on synchronized data flows, low latency, and high-performance connectivity capable of supporting real-time interactions across multiple sites.
“We already have fiber in many metropolitan areas that is not yet lit,” Luis Delgado, Senior Client Partner at Verizon said. “Once there is a mission requirement, whether that is R&D, simulation, or advanced training, that infrastructure can be tailored around the operational need.” This model is especially relevant in VR-enabled Air Force training environments, where instructors can remotely guide airmen through procedures in safe, controlled settings while maintaining real-time visibility into performance and execution.
At Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, the Air Force is demonstrating how immersive technologies are reshaping military training. For more than two years, reservists have used virtual reality (VR) headsets and handheld controls to practice maintenance procedures in realistic digital environments before performing them in the field. “It’s meant for training purposes, exposure training,” Tech. Sgt. Tou Tswj Cha, a 302d AW munitions craftsman, said. “Then when you actually go do the task, you’re familiar with it.”
The program, now active across 135 bases, is estimated to have saved $19 million by reducing wear and tear on physical equipment. But its impact extends beyond cost savings. As military training becomes more immersive, data-intensive, and distributed, these environments increasingly depend on resilient, high-performance infrastructure capable of supporting real-connectivity, low latency, and seamless collaboration.
According to representatives reporting on the initiative, reinforced concrete and steel walls within the facility have created challenges for wireless signal transmission, requiring wired headset connections and future upgrades that include fiber-optic infrastructure and expanded wireless capabilities. As Air Force experimentation and training becomes more digital and data intensive, the network is becoming part of the mission environment.
Fiber as Part of a Multi-modal Defense Architecture
The larger shift is not just about the fiber itself. It is about how fiber integrates into broader defense architectures that combine terrestrial infrastructure, wireless systems, cloud environments, and increasingly, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications into a unified operational framework.
Rather than relying on a single transport method, military research environments are evolving toward multi-modal architectures capable of adapting to different missions and testing conditions. In that ecosystem, fiber serves as the high-capacity backbone, while LEO satellite networks extend resilient, low latency connectivity into remote, contested, or rapidly deployed environments where terrestrial infrastructure may be limited.
This aligns closely with Air Force modernization priorities around resilient, data-centric architectures capable of supporting operations across dispersed environments. “As bandwidth demand increases, it is critical that the DAF [Department of the Air Force] provide our warfighters the capabilities to both manage available bandwidth transfer and increasing amounts of data so the U.S. may retain information and decision advantage,” as Air Force officials were quoted in a DefenseScoop article in late 2025.
The evolution is especially relevant as the Air Force expands AI-enabled systems, modeling and simulation, digital engineering, and real-time sensor integration across distributed bases, testing locations as well as hyperscaler environments.
The Strategic Takeaway
As the Air Force modernizes training, testing and research environments, the network is becoming far more than a supporting utility. AI-driven systems, immersive simulations, and real-time collaboration across multiple locations all depend on infrastructure that can deliver both performance and adaptability across fiber, wireless, and satellite-enabled environments. In that environment, lit and dark fiber each serve a distinct purpose, combining scalable connectivity with the control needed to support mission-specific requirements.