Air Force, Army team up for exercises at National Training Center

Courtesy Photo | An Airman from Green Flag-West marshals an F-16. The 56th Fighter Wing sent pilots from 309th and 62nd Fighter Squadrons to participate in Green Flag-West, 14-09.  

FORT IRWIN, CA, UNITED STATES

09.04.2014

Story by Guy Volb 

National Training Center and Fort Irwin

FORT IRWIN, Calif. - Integrating air and land forces in a joint combat environment requires a synchronized effort which comes only after years of training alongside sister service components.

For members of the U.S. Air Force’s Green Flag West contingent that means conducting combat training exercises including Air Force aircraft support within ground operations here at the National Training Center.

Comprised of two units, the 549th Combat Training Squadron out of Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and the 12th CTS here at Fort Irwin, they are responsible for the logistical support of Air Support Operation Squadrons, Air Support Operation Cells, and fixed wing units supporting multi-national, multi-service exercises here.

At Fort Irwin’s National Training Center, where some 50,000 members of America’s armed forces its allies train each year, it’s essential Air Force assets are included in exercises to ensure realism and fine tune interaction between ground forces and those controlling air assets.

Like their Army counterparts who develop intricate scenarios testing war fighters on the ground, the Green Flag West mission begins long before tactical operations occur on the “battlefield.” Combat Training Squadrons begin designing exercises with Army planners six months before units arrive to begin maneuvers.

Together, Army and Air Force planners build an integrated plan maximizing joint and individual unit training integrating of aircrew, Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, logistical airmen, battlefield weather and other operational support specialties.

"During a Green Flag West exercise we support the National Training Center rotations as OCTs, or Observers, Coaches, and Trainers,” said Air Force Maj. Justin Williams, 12th CTS assistant director for operations. “We don't do grade sheets or evaluations. We observe the rotational training units, coach them on where we see possibilities for improvement and help them train to the latest tactics. We want them to start with a blank sheet of paper and encourage the units to push their own limits to see what truly can be done.

“Each rotation is essentially a large scale war, but instead of fighting over the course of six months or a year, we accomplish the deployment in one month,” said Williams. “Our concentration is maximizing the effectiveness of the military with truly joint operations. This means seamless integration of air operations in support of ground forces. The 12th CTS and 549th CTS are comprised of air-to-ground experts who provide oversight and ensure the highest level of integration between air and ground forces."

For these experts, integration isn’t easy or there would be no need to exercise it.

“The biggest issue is integrating with the Tactical Operations Center,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Patrick Knapp, regarding working with his Army partners as a weather forecaster. “It’s important for us to be in the TOC so we can monitor where they (aircraft) are and when they’re coming back to base. That way we can keep pilots advised of changes in weather, especially if there are storms that pop up.

“This place is actually great,” said Knapp when asked how realistic the training environment is at Fort Irwin. “When we walk out there into the box it looks like Afghanistan --- barren desert, mountains, and complex terrain. Training out here is excellent.”

Capt. Brandon Roth, from the 309th Fighter Squadron out of Luke AFB, Arizona, and chief instructor pilot for weapons and tactics, said from a fighter pilot’s viewpoint “we want to make sure all of the instructors are on the same page – teaching the students the same tactics, techniques and procedures.

“At home station we get to go out, we have great ranges down there … but there’s rarely any Army folks to train with,” he said. “Out here at the National Training Center we get the opportunity to go fight with those guys – thousands of Army folks on the ground – and that’s a unique opportunity that we really don’t get anywhere else.”

Roth, who as part of Green Flag stages out of Nellis, said the ability to exercise the entire command and control structure between the ground elements and those in the air provides everyone involved with a lot of insight – and that’s what Green Flag is all about.

There is also that service specific lingo that Air Force specialists have to make themselves familiar with to ensure they can speak the Army language.

“It’s hard for us to predict what the next war is going to look like … we need to be able to flex with whatever that war is going to look like,” said Roth. “I think the best way to do that is to make sure we know how to work with each other. The ability to do that is really one of the major learning objectives for this exercise. Speaking the same language is also a challenge between the services, and that’s one of the reasons this is such a great exercise.”

Air Force Lt. Col. Cameron Dadgar, commander of the 549th CTS at Nellis, said “That’s a key part of our integration, to bring air space and cyber affects into what’s going on on the battlefield. Whatever forces the air component commander has at his or her disposal in support of the land forces component commander, that’s what we’ll exercise.”

In short, the air component “provides advanced, realistic, and relevant air to surface training for joint and coalition partners to meet combatant commander requirements through air, space, and cyber space…” said Dadgar.

If that sounds a whole lot like the NTC mission statement, but from an Air Force perspective, it should. The two services combine their skills to generate some of the most comprehensive, challenging, and realistic combat training exercises available anywhere in the world. The end result is service members who train here leaving as better leaders and warriors.

• Date Taken: 09.04.2014
• Date Posted: 09.26.2014 11:56
• Story ID: 143369
• Location: FORT IRWIN, CA, US