“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.
Lit and dark fiber as complementary tools
The Air Force is treating lit and dark fiber not as alternatives but as complementary elements of a single modernization strategy. Lit fiber offers rapidly deployable, managed connectivity that can connect bases, labs, and cloud environments quickly when mission needs change. Dark fiber gives organizations deeper control over security, performance, and network configuration, allowing bespoke network shaping rather than forcing mission workflows to conform to a fixed set of network limits.
Cung Nguyen on mission-driven network control
Verizon’s Cung Nguyen framed the change in operational language: defense customers want “the ability to shape performance, security, and management around the mission.” That shift is prompting a different procurement and engineering posture—one that prioritizes control inside the network so testing and R&D environments can be tuned for changing workloads. The result is a push toward architectures where fiber is part of the experiment as much as it is the transport.
Peterson Space Force Base VR program and training at scale
At Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, the Air Force has tested immersive technologies for more than two years with reservists using virtual reality headsets and handheld controls to practice maintenance procedures in digital environments prior to field operations. The program now runs across 135 bases and is estimated to have saved $19 million by reducing wear and tear on physical equipment. Tech. Sgt. Tou Tswj Cha, a 302d AW munitions craftsman, described the effort as “meant for training purposes, exposure training,” adding that trainees are better prepared when they later perform the physical task.
Those training gains expose practical infrastructure limits. Reinforced concrete and steel walls in some facilities have impeded wireless signals, pushing the program toward wired headset connections and planned upgrades that include fiber-optic infrastructure and expanded wireless capabilities. As training becomes more immersive and distributed, the network is explicitly becoming part of the mission environment rather than an afterthought.
Multi-modal architecture: fiber, wireless and LEO satellites
The Air Force’s evolving approach pairs fiber with other transport methods to create adaptable, multi-modal architectures. In this model, fiber serves as the high-capacity backbone while low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks and wireless systems extend connectivity into remote or rapidly deployed environments. Air Force officials told DefenseScoop in late 2025 that “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.”
That convergence is positioned to support AI-enabled systems, modeling and simulation, digital engineering, and real-time sensor integration across distributed bases, testing locations, and hyperscaler environments—all of which increase bandwidth and latency sensitivity requirements.
What this means for technologists, procurement leaders, and trainees
- Technologists and security teams: will focus on shaping performance and security “inside the network,” using dark fiber where deep control is required and managed-lit services where rapid deployment and scalability matter.
- Procurement leaders and policymakers: face choices about when to activate existing metropolitan fiber and when to pursue bespoke dark-fiber builds, balancing speed of deployment against the need for mission-specific controls.
- Trainees, instructors, and program managers: benefit from reduced equipment wear and cost savings—$19 million across 135 bases is the program’s current estimate—but must plan for facility upgrades (fiber-optic links and expanded wireless) to remove physical barriers like reinforced concrete and steel that force wired solutions today.
The Air Force’s experiments make plain that networks are now mission components: immersive simulations, distributed training, and AI-enabled research demand predictable, low-latency, high-capacity links. Lit fiber supplies speed and convenience; dark fiber supplies the control necessary for mission tailoring. The remaining operational question, grounded in the facts reported, is how quickly existing unlit metropolitan fiber will be tailored and brought online to support scaling the VR and data-intensive programs already active across 135 bases.
