PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — The reading of beeps and wavy lines brought soldiers from 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, and the Air Force Advanced Space Operations School together on Peterson Air Force Base, Oct. 31.
“Iron Eagle” electronic warfare soldiers conducted the first joint electronic warfare training with members of the Advanced Space Operations School at the Moorman Space Education and Training enter to get additional training on equipment and learn each other’s procedures.
“We are providing a brief overview of systems and equipment that the [Air Force] uses when conducting EW-type operations,” said Air Force Capt. William Conway, weapons and tactics officer, Advanced Space Operations School. “We want to help Army EW soldiers learn our capabilities and instruct them on our types of equipment.”
Electronic warfare soldiers supervise and perform military action involving the use of electromagnetic energy to determine, exploit, reduce or prevent hostile acts.
“Our job includes disrupting, detecting and denying enemy communications and electronic signature systems,” said Capt. Jason A. Bennett, electronic warfare officer, 4th CAB. “We also help friendly forces by using EW-detection assets to locate enemy units and use equipment to protect our communication systems and other electronic type of equipment.”
The training helped the service members from the different branches review each other’s EW operational directives and needs, so they could learn how to work together better.
“We want to provide knowledge to Army EW professionals on how to use and request our equipment,” said Conway. “In return, we want them to tell us what they need during their operations so we can evaluate the services we provide.”
The joint training also allowed the EW Air Force and Army members to save money.
“We have equipment in this military budget constrained environment,” said Conway. “This allows them to learn equipment that we already have, which is zero cost to the Army and [Air Force].”
Bennett said he hopes the training will benefit all of the Fort Carson EW community.
“We are trying to be proactive for the CAB and 4th Inf. Div. to better our EW soldiers,” he said. “We are proud to spearhead this training for the division and trying to implement this as monthly training. We want to make an impact, to learn the capabilities of our other military branch members and improve our EW skills as a collective group.”
Sgt. 1st Class Juan Aviles, electronic warfare specialist, 4th CAB, said the training was beneficial.
“The electronic warfare profession is fairly new to the Army,” he said. “We are getting training on equipment at [Peterson] that we don’t currently have at Fort Carson, which is very beneficial to us. The Air Force has had this profession for a while, and has many resources that are useful to us.”