Metal Knight targeted on contested maritime operations, with belongings working from far-off Ahead Arming and Refueling Factors and Air-Delivered Floor Refueling nodes within the ‘hub-and-spoke’ idea.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ Metal Knight 25 train noticed the I Marine Expeditionary Drive’s (I MEF) third Marine Plane Wing (third MAW) and its subordinate Marine Plane Group 13 (MAG 13) execute aviation energy projection, simulated strikes, defensive counter-air, distributed ‘hub-and-spoke’ operations, maritime assault and shut air help operations.
Held from Dec. 1 to Dec. 13, 2025, throughout California’s seaboard and enormous elements of western U.S., the train concerned Marine F-35C Lightning IIs, F/A-18C Hornets, AH-1Z Vipers, CH-53E Tremendous Stallions, MV-22B Ospreys, KC-130J Tremendous Hercules. Air Drive KC-135 Stratotankers, C-130J Tremendous Hercules, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, HH-60 Jolly Inexperienced II search-and-rescue helicopters and B-1B Lancer bombers additionally participated within the maneuvers.
Metal Knight was centered round general joint Air Drive and Navy MARSTRIKE (Maritime Strike) eventualities and supplementary refueling and re-arming from distributed areas in ahead zones. CAS operations with AGM-179 JAGM fires from the AH-1Z Viper had been additionally a part of the eventualities.
The train included ADGR (Air Delivered Floor Refueling) and FARP (Ahead Arming and Refueling Level) nodes to help the F-35C Lightning IIs, F/A-18C Hornets and the AH-1Z Vipers. Greater than 400 Marines and Sailors operated throughout six areas from San Diego to 29 Palms to Sacramento, utilizing expertise just like the Marine Air-Floor Tablets (MAGTAB) for command and management.
FARP Ops ♠️🐍
MWSS-373 and the MWSS-372 supported FARPs at San Clemente Island and Sacramento Mather Airport throughout train Metal Knight 25, delivering refueling and rearming for plane and lengthening their attain.
📸 LCpl. Samantha Devine & Sgt. Brian Stippey pic.twitter.com/dwhJ17flVP
— third Marine Plane Wing (@3rdmaw) December 14, 2025
Distributed Maritime Strike
For the Distributed Maritime Strike position, third MAW partnered with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Drive for a “joint, simulated maritime strike” on Dec. 10, 2025, “demonstrating the Marine Corps’ capacity to mission aviation energy throughout the contested maritime area.”
The MARSTRIKE noticed fourth and fifth-generation plane, joint aviation belongings and “contracted simulated adversary forces” rehearsing “long-range detection, focusing on, and simulated engagement of maritime threats.” U.S. Air Drive KC-135s, HH-60Ws and B-1Bs supported MARSTRIKE alongside the contracted “Purple Air” replicating reasonable adversary actions.
The contracted Purple Air point out refers to non-public corporations like ATAC or Prime Aces offering ADAIR (Adversary Air) providers. That is these days a relentless of such complicated workout routines, because the contracted Purple Air permits for extra simulated enemies to be current in the course of the eventualities.
The MARSTRIKE employed an “hub-spoke-node framework,” connecting “centralized command, management and sustainment” (hubs) supporting “prolonged communications and logistics ahead” (spokes) to “allow distributed aviation operations.” FARP and ADGR nodes “function on the tactical edge for restricted durations, permitting aviation models to refuel, rearm and maneuver earlier than displacing, inside 72-96 hours, to keep away from detection,” the press launch defined.
F-35Bs from the third MAW/MAG 13’s Marine Fighter Assault Squadron 214 (VMFA-214) launched from “hub” MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Yuma, whereas VMFA-311’s F-35C Lightning IIs and VMFA-323’s F/A-18C Hornets departed one of many “spokes”, MCAS Miramar. The MARSTRIKE additionally showcased how fifth era F-35s and fourth era legacy Hornets “mix survivability, sensor fusion and maneuver to complicate an adversary’s focusing on whereas sustaining persistent stress throughout the battlespace.”
Navy and Air Drive command-and-control parts offered “maritime intelligence to synchronize fires and preserve situational consciousness” to Marine aviators. Following the MARSTRIKE, third MAW plane executed a sequence of defensive counterair and offensive counterair missions.
FARP and ADGR
The service stated a key factor of the train was a Ahead Arming and Refueling Level (FARP) node at Mather airfield in Sacramento, California, established by the Marine Wing Help Squadron 372 (MWSS-372) “Diamondbacks.” The press launch famous the FARP node was 400 miles from one of many spokes, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, demonstrating the squadron’s “capacity to increase aviation sustainment far past conventional help ranges.”
“U.S. Marines established and operated a ahead arming and refueling level (FARP) at Sacramento Mather Airport, California, Dec. 8, 2025, the place they proceed to maintain ahead aviation operations for Metal Knight 25.” pic.twitter.com/baIn6q8A86
— Alex 🌻 (@alexgarcialonso) December 13, 2025
All through the train, numerous fixed-wing plane departed their residence stations, together with MCAS Miramar, MCAS Yuma and Air Drive bases throughout California, to make the most of the FARP at Mather. MWSS-372 employed its Tactical Aviation Floor Refueling System (TAGRS) that it makes use of in “austere environments.”
By way of TAGRS, F-35Cs from VMFA-311 “acquired gas previous to a simulated Maritime Strike.” The F-35C’s inner gas capability is roughly 19,200 kilos, giving it a flight vary of greater than 1,200 nautical miles, additional prolonged throughout Metal Knight because of the FARP.
MWSS-372 additionally arrange four-point FARPs on the Southern California Logistics Airport, Victorville and San Clemente Island. The San Clemente FARP supported AH-1 Vipers, CH-53E Tremendous Stallions and MV-22B Ospreys for “sea denial and shut air help operations.”
Victorville additionally noticed the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron (VMGR) 352 using a KC-130J Tremendous Hercules to offer an ADGR node on Dec. 12. The ADGR supported a number of F-35Bs from VMFA 214, permitting the STOVL jet to function from “separate bases and maintain at a ahead location […] remaining engaged deeper into the battlespace.”
Due to this, the jets had “prolonged time on station, elevated vary, and follow-on missions with out returning to a most important working base.” The 2-point ADGR from the KC-130J despatched up the F-35s inside 40 minutes of touchdown.
In whole, the F-35Bs acquired over 8,000 kilos of gas, practically 60% of its inner gas capability. The F-35B can carry roughly 13,000 kilos of gas internally, and has a fight radius of 505 nautical miles.
The Corps referred to as this dispersed hub-and-spoke idea as Distributed Aviation Operations (DAO).
A 305th Rescue Squadron HH-60W Jolly Inexperienced II receives gas from a thirty ninth RQS HC-130J Fight King II plane throughout a helicopter air-to-air refueling off the coast of California throughout Train Metal Knight 25 … #AirForce
— DVIDSHub (@DVIDSHub) December 13, 2025
CAS and JAGM fireplace from AH-1Z Viper
The Marine Mild Assault Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 267, a part of third MAW’s MAG 39, Viper fired an AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Floor Missile (JAGM) on Dec. 11 whereas flying the AH-1Z in a “sea-denial mission” over Californian waters. Two Vipers are seen flying with not less than one JAGM every, and accompanied by an UH-1Y Venom.
The JAGM can higher goal “higher-level threats as adversaries develop extra countermeasures, permitting us to […] obtain results on the primary try,” stated Capt. Austin White, an AH-1Z Viper pilot and future operations officer with HMLA-267. The JAGM replaces the legacy Hellfire seeker with a dual-mode steering system, permitting it to “defeat countermeasures and have interaction targets that may in any other case be inaccessible in contested environments. It offers Marines the flexibility to ship exact results at vary whereas remaining cellular and survivable in a maritime atmosphere.”
Marine Mild Assault Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 267 and HMLA-367 additionally “delivered steady shut air help […] throughout a geographically dispersed battlespace.” From Camp Pendleton to San Clemente Island and Twentynine Palms, AH-1Z Vipers and UH-1Y Venoms offered CAS to the first Marine Division and joint power belongings on “find, repair, and destroy” missions enabled by joint terminal assault controllers (JTACs).
A U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper fired an AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Floor Missile throughout Train Metal Knight 25 over the Pacific on December 11. The occasion highlights how Marine assault aviation is adapting precision strike capabilities for maritime-focused, distributed operations. pic.twitter.com/95RbqcBT7h
— Valhalla (@ELMObrokenWings) December 13, 2025
“Marines refined their capacity to coordinate airspace, deconflict fires, preserve a typical operational image [through] multi-domain operations [while] figuring out targets on the tactical edge, go focusing on knowledge past line of sight, and combine with increased headquarters and shooters to shut the kill chain,” defined the service.
IMAGE 6: USMC AH-1Z Vipers with HMLA 267 are staged for preflight checks for a Shut Air Help mission throughout Metal Knight 25 at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California, Dec. 4, 2025. (Picture credit score: USMC/Sgt. Brian A. Stippey)
“The train emphasizes future struggle circumstances” for Marines to conduct the identical operations from dispersed maritime and littoral positions. Extra complicated CAS eventualities noticed “kill-web focusing on, and sustained stress towards simulated maritime threats.” This brings into focus the Viper’s and Marine MQ-9 Reaper’s position with the Purple and Inexperienced Wolf launched results and podded electromagnetic spectrum capabilities within the western Pacific.
