Cope North continues to take to the skies

by Master Sgt. Joshua Gray
Cope North 13 Public Affairs

2/10/2013 - Cope North 2013 Public Affairs, Andersen AFB -- Exercise Cope North 13 moves into its second week here, with the focus on molding the air forces of three nations into a cohesive fighting force.

Participants from the Unites States, Japan and Australia will focus on Large Force Employment scenarios, which enhance the interoperability of 15 different airframes.

"From an interoperability standpoint, I think there are multiple facets to think about," said Col. Peter Milohnic, the U.S. Air Force Exercise Director for Cope North 13 and Commander of the 18th Operations Group at Kadena Air Base, Japan. "At the lowest level of interoperability, we've got de-confliction, and I'm primarily talking about the flying aspect. As you move up the ladder of interoperability, you go from de-confliction, to coordination, to integration, and ultimately at the top of the hierarchy, you've got interdependence."

According to Milohnic, the combined nations at Cope North are at the coordination stage, heading to the integration stage. Integration is a vital step because it is the step where they make sure everyone's equipment can work with each other.

An example of this is the F-15, which has two squadrons participating at Cope North. One of which is the U.S. Air Force unit flying C-models, while their Japan Air-Self Defense Force counterpart is flying J-models. While the basic airplane is the same, each aircraft has different internal systems specific to each nation. Each nation tries to make those systems work with each other as closely as possible, but sometimes there are kinks to work out.

Royal Australian Air Force Exercise Director Group Captain Robert Chipman said exercises like Cope North are important to make sure that not only can those F-15s work together when the time comes, but that they'll also work with the other fighter and support aircraft of partner nations, such as the newly-operational RAAF E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft.

"I think it is very good that we get to incorporate air combat training, particularly where we have all three forces, with the surveillance and refueling assets as well, because it is extremely complex to bring those together," Group Captain Chipman said. "And the time you need to learn those lessons needs to be in training, and not in combat."

Look at the flightline at Cope North, and you'll find a lot of units that are home based with, or near, units of the other partner nations. The JASDF's F-2 fighters and E-2C radar surveillance aircraft here for Cope North share a runway at Misawa with two squadrons of F-16s from the USAF's 35th Fighter Wing, and the F-15Cs of the USAF's 44th Fighter Squadron and the F-15J's of the JASDF's 204 Squadron are both based on the island of Okinawa.

However, each air force has their own training objectives and restrictions, so despite having squadrons so close to each other, the nations don't get to fly together as often as they might like.
Colonel Niida Yoshiyuki, the JASDF's Exercise Director, states one of the key advantage to Cope North is being able to free themselves from home station obligations and focus solely on integration.

"There are fewer limitations for training, so we are able to do all kinds of training," Colonel Niida said. "That's the main difference between training at Misawa and training here. At Misawa, we only train with the U.S. Air Force, but here we can train with the RAAF, and it is very useful for improving our tactical ability."

While there may only be a few days left of flying for this year's Cope North, Colonel Milohnic believes there is still plenty of time to solidify the lessons learned about each air force's different tactics and procedures, ultimately making them a more formidable force.

"From an integration standpoint, as long as we see a learning curve that's on the positive slope, going up rungs of the ladder instead of back down, then I think we'll be pretty happy."