Capabilities to deceive opponents and otherwise help to conceal the movements and activities of friendly forces could be as important as physical defenses in any future high-end fight involving the United States, such as one against China in the Pacific. There has been a particular resurgence of interest within the U.S. Air Force in these kinds of capabilities as part of new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations, which the service has been developing to reduce the vulnerability of its units in a major conflict.

The Air Force's new emphasis on deception and related capabilities was underscored by the appearance of what was described as a "prototype portable camouflage, concealment, and deception hangar" at a recent Air National Guard exercise. Nicknamed Hoodoo Sea and staged out of Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida, the training event was centered on exploring new and improved capabilities, as well as associated tactics, techniques, and procedures, for conducting various types of operations from austere environments.