*ARCHIVE PICTURE, NOT THE SIMULATED MISSILE TEST* On Aug. 18, at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, the Defense Department conducted a flight test of a conventionally configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, Calif. The test missile exited its ground mobile launcher and accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight. Data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform DOD's development of future intermediate-range capabilities. ..... STORY COPY: The United States military simulated a cruise missile threat to the United States as recently as December 2019. Described as the first field test of a novel approach to warfighting, communicating and decision-making,??? the Air Force, Navy and Army used new methods and technology Dec. 16-18 for collecting, analysing and sharing information in real time to identify and defeat a simulated cruise missile threat to America. According to an Air Force statement, this initial exercise was ??sfocused on defending the homeland???. The three-day long exercise of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) tested technology being developed to enable the military???s developing concept called Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). While JADC2 has been embraced for three years as a critical tool by senior leaders, including Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, until recently it was an idea confined largely to PowerPoint slides and a slick animated demonstration of the concept. But that changed during the December exercise when aircraft from the Air Force and Navy, a Navy destroyer, an Army air defense sensor and firing unit, a special operations unit, as well as commercial space and ground sensors came together to confront ??" and defeat ??" a simulated threat to the U.S. homeland. Upon detection of a potential cruise missile threatening the United States, simulated by QF-16s, in quick succession using new software, communications equipment and a