Photo By Capt. Benjamin Aronson | Members from the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, and an exchange officer...... read more read more
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EINSIEDLERHOF AIR STATION, Germany -- The Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa Warfare Center brought together participants from the U.S. Army, Air Force, and—for the first time—the Marine Corps, to execute SPARTAN SHIELD 25-2, a virtual exercise centered on a simulated ground-to-air attack scenario emphasizing the joint kill chain.
The event heavily featured the Army’s Patriot air defense system, testing joint warfighters’ coordination and certifying Army Air Defense Artillery Fire Control Officers to meet the Air Battle Management Level certification standard.
“This is the premiere exercise we use to certify ADAFCOs to be deployment ready,” said Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Thomas St. John, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade ADAFCO technician, instructor and evaluator. “We fight together with Control and Reporting Centers, and this is the only time we get to train with them outside of a real-world situation.”
Control and Reporting Centers are mobile command, control and communication centers which support joint force air component commander requirements and are operated by many of the career fields and branches represented in SPARTAN SHIELD 25-2.
During the exercise, members from the three branches manned their stations as the scenario unfolded, responding to adversarial threats entering their airspaces. For the ADAFCO certification, soldiers focused on timely, effective engagement coordination, minimizing over-engagement, military airspace deconfliction and mitigating fratricide and impacts within their AORs.
The Army worked with the USAFE-AFAFRICA’s Warfare Center’s 5th Combat Training Squadron and the 606th Air Control Squadron from Aviano Air Base, Italy, to certify ADAFCOs alongside air directors assigned to Marine Air Support Squadron 3 from Camp Pendleton, California.
“While this is not our assigned theater of operations, there is quite a bit of good to come out and gain the familiarity of the different AOR, learn the tactics, techniques and procedures and incorporate them into our plans,” said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Tyrone Anub, Jr., MASS-3 commander.
SPARTAN SHIELD 25-2 gave Marines Patriot experience, a rarely exercised Integrated Air and Missile Defense asset crucial for sector area defense command, a MASS-3 priority.
In addition to this training, the USAFE-AFAFRICA Warfare Center is focused on routinely updating their IAMD training to remain prepared for or ahead of evolving threats. Ramstein Air Base’s recent Operational Utility Assessment, which assessed existing counter-unmanned aerial system capabilities, provided an example of how the Warfare Center draws from other units to ensure their training is up to date.
“While Patriot offers crucial point defense capabilities, we are constantly integrating additional defense capabilities, specifically counter-unmanned aerial systems, to enhance point defense,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Kenton Craddock, 5th CTS exercise planner and weapons director.
All branches are focused on contributing to the air defense of U.S. equities as the need for IAMD and tactical air command and control increases across all theaters.
“There is no universe where any of us execute IAMD on our own – integrated air and missile defense is inherently Joint,” said Anub. “If we can reduce those kill chain timelines by even fractions of a second, our lethality increases by order of a magnitude.”
| Date Taken: | 11.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.20.2025 03:50 |
| Story ID: | 551857 |
| Location: | KAISERSLAUTERN, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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