Matthew Matt B. Caffrey Jr.

Guest Instructor

Matt is currently a civil servant assigned to Headquarters Air Force Research Laboratory (HQ AFRL) at Wright Patterson AFB.  His duties include leading Future Analytical Science and Technology (FAST) wargames, teaching the Air Force Material Command (AFMC) Wargame Course and AFRL and liaison to AFMC for wargaming. His prior positions include helping to stand up the HQ AFMC wargame branch and lead of AFRL’s Future Warfare Analysis Team, Directorate of Plans and Programs, HQ AFRL. He has previously served as Professor of Wargaming and Campaign Planning at the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Research Associate for Wargaming at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies, and Senior Analyst for the SYSCON Corporation, supporting the Air Force Wargaming Institute (all at Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama).

He is a retired colonel in the Air Force Reserve. His final military assignment was as Senior Reservist, Information Directorate, AFRL. Previous duty assignments include Chief of Wargaming Strategy Development in the Air Staff’s Checkmate Division, in Washington, D.C., and assignments at the major air command, wing, group, and squadron levels.

Colonel Caffrey (ret) is the developer of the “third-generation war game” concept, the Strategy Cycle (sometimes called the “Caffrey Loop”), and the Caffrey Triangle. In 1993 he helped found the Connections interdisciplinary wargame conference, in 2013 helped found Connections UK, and in 2020 he led the first online Global Connections Conference. He created the ACSC wargame elective course, the AFRL wargame course and the AFMC wargame course.

Colonel Caffrey (ret) is the designer of AFMC’s Agile Combat Support Science and Technology Wargame, the AFRL/Royal Air Force Agile Combat Support Science and Technology Wargame, the Air Force Research Laboratory Wargame, the Engineer/Strategist Exercise, the Joint Resource Allocation Exercise (JRAX), the Joint Deployment Employment Exercise (JDEX), and several others.

He is the author of On Wargaming, Naval War College Press, 2019, coauthor (with Frank Chadwick) of Gulf War Fact Book, Game Designers Workshop, 1991, and has written several chapters and many articles on wargaming, airpower, and defense issues. He has spoken on wargaming; internationally from the German War College, to the United Kingdom’s Defense Research Establishment, and in the United States from the Pentagon to Silicon Valley. A former member of the Air University Red Team, he has served on Blue, Red or White teams for Air Force, Navy, and Army Title 10 wargames.