California -- n support of Exercise Steel Knight 25, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing partnered with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to conduct a joint, simulated maritime strike Dec. 10, 2025, demonstrating the Marine Corps’ ability to project aviation power across the contested maritime domain. Steel Knight is an annual exercise that strengthens the Navy–Marine Corps team’s ability to respond forward, integrate across domains and sustain Marine Air-Ground Task Force readiness.
The MARSTRIKE brought together fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft, joint aviation assets and contracted simulated adversary forces to rehearse long-range detection, targeting, and simulated engagement of maritime threats. U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers, HH-60 search-and-rescue aircraft, B-1 and B-52 bombers and fighter support aircraft enabled the strike alongside contracted “red air” replicating realistic adversary actions. The event required robust command and control across dispersed nodes, validating the joint force’s ability to operate as a cohesive strike team.
To manage aviation operations spread across California and adjacent maritime spaces, 3rd MAW employed an evolving hub-spoke-node framework designed to enable distributed aviation operations. The hub provides centralized command, control and sustainment, while spokes extend communications and logistics forward. Nodes operate at the tactical edge for limited durations, allowing aviation units to refuel, rearm and maneuver before displacing, within 72-96 hours, to avoid detection. This approach enables Marine aviation to generate combat power from austere locations while maintaining survivability in a contested maritime environment.
“The maritime domain is one of the most challenging battlespaces we face,” said Col. Llonie Cobb, Chief of Staff, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. “Gone are the days when we operated from predictable locations with static logistics chains. Today we have to be ready to fight from anywhere, and 3rd MAW, partnered with our joint forces, is proving we can.”
With the architecture in place, F-35B Lightning II aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 214, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, launched from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, identified as the Hub for Steel Knight 25, and F-35C Lightning II aircraft with VMFA-311 and F/A-18C Hornets with VMFA-323, MAG-11, departed from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, one of the spokes, to join the fight. The aircraft integrated with joint partners for air-to-air refueling, targeting and fires coordination, and arming and refueling at the dispersed forward operating nodes.
A key element of the evolution was a node established at Mather airfield in Sacramento, California, and its role as a forward arming and refueling node, allowing Marine fixed-wing aircraft to extend their reach, regenerate combat power and remain engaged over long distances. This marked the first time 3rd MAW established and sustained a node at a distance equal to that of Mather from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, approximately 400 nautical miles, demonstrating the wing’s ability to maneuver aviation assets well beyond traditional support ranges.
“Forward arming and refueling at Mather showed that we can extend the reach of Marine aviation across California and into the maritime fight,” said Col. Jarrod DeVore, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. “This is exactly the type of distributed sustainment required for modern conflict.”
This level of coordination enabled Marines and joint partners to fight simulated maritime threats in an end-to-end demonstration of closing kill webs across distributed aviation assets. Closing kill webs refers to the ability to rapidly sense, track, target, engage and assess threats across multiple domains using a network of integrated platforms. In practice, dispersed aircraft share data in real time, coordinate fires and seamlessly pass targets as they maneuver, compressing decision timelines, increasing lethality, and allowing the joint force to strike at speed and depth.
The strike also showcased seamless integration between fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft, illustrating how F-35s and legacy Hornets combine survivability, sensor fusion and maneuver to complicate an adversary’s targeting while maintaining persistent pressure across the battlespace.
Naval and joint force integration remained central to the mission, with Marine aviators working alongside Navy and Air Force command-and-control elements and maritime intelligence to synchronize fires and maintain situational awareness across the operating area.
“Steel Knight gives us the chance to rehearse the hardest problems: long-range fires, maritime targeting, and distributed aviation operations with the joint force,” DeVore said. “These are exactly the challenges we expect in future conflict against a near-peer adversary.”
Following the MARSTRIKE, 3rd MAW aircraft executed a series of defensive counterair and offensive counterair missions, reinforcing maritime security and enabling follow-on maneuver by the Marine Air-Ground Task Force and joint partners. The missions demonstrated the wing’s ability to sustain combat aviation operations across multiple distributed sites while supporting I Marine Expeditionary Force objectives.
“The MARSTRIKE affirmed that 3rd MAW is ready to support the joint force in a future fight, integrating with Navy and Air Force partners, generating combat power from distributed nodes, and delivering lethal aviation fires across the maritime battlespace,” DeVore said.