Photo By Staff Sgt. James Fritz | U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Justin Lancaster, left, 2nd Combat Weather Systems Squadron...... read more read more
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The 22nd Expeditionary Combat Weather Squadron completed a radar replacement project that will significantly bolster forecasting capabilities and improve resource protection across the region within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
The installation of a new Portable Doppler Radar weather system ensures critical real-time storm monitoring capabilities.
“Now we have another resource besides just satellites to forecast and provide resource protection for all of our assets,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Timothy Everhard, 22nd ECWS NCO in charge.
Combat weather Airmen play a key role in protecting U.S. Army and Air Force assets by forecasting dangerous weather conditions. These include dust storms, thunderstorms and high wind events.
“We track all sorts of weather for the area of responsibility, and we use radar and satellite to forecast that,” Everhard said. “It provides us a way to figure out what is coming in our direction and how to notify resource protection assets and areas in the other units.”
The radar installation was a collaborative effort between multiple organizations, demonstrating the importance of interoperability and communication in deployed environments.
“We have to make sure we understand how to speak Army as well as speaking Air Force,” Everhard said. “There can be a little bit of lost-in-translation moments going on, but at the same time, we are all learning how to work together as a team and understand the values of resource protection and what the weather team can provide to the joint environment here.”
For 2nd Lt. Nicholas Brown, 22nd ECWS officer in charge, the experience offered valuable leadership and operational lessons. He emphasized the need for seamless coordination with multiple teams, including crane operators, repair crews and stateside logistics, ensuring the equipment arrived on time and the operation ran smoothly.
“This was about two or three weeks in the making, so we had a little bit of a short turnaround, but we made it happen,” Brown said. “Coordination and communication was vital to this mission.”
The replacement radar enables weather personnel to monitor storm activity and identify potentially hazardous events like downbursts – localized columns of sinking air that can cause rapid wind shifts and visibility issues.
“The way that the Portable Doppler Radar helps us here as a combat weather squadron is it enables us to peer into storms as they're happening,” Brown said. “A storm cell can collapse unexpectedly, causing a lot of damaging winds or dust that can inhibit our operations.”
| Date Taken: | 07.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2025 05:01 |
| Story ID: | 543809 |
| Location: | (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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