Top training, realistic combat threats - warriors made on Idaho soil

by Master Sgt. Kevin Wallace
366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

3/13/2014 - MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- Red smoke bellows from the hilltop as Marines and Air Force combat controllers barrel out the back of a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter.

Moments later, the relatively calm desert sky erupts with booms as two F-15E Strike Eagles "attack" the air assault as an exercise contesting enemy force.

More Strike Eagles from the 389th, 391st and 428th Fighter Squadrons arrive on station, engage the enemy aircraft and neutralize the threat. The Marines and CCT Airmen survived the mayhem.

That action-packed 20 minutes was fictitious, yet wasn't much different than the dozens of other sorties flown during the combined-joint exercise Gunfighter Flag 14-2, hosted here, March 10-14.

Airmen from the 366th Operations Group, 366th Maintenance Group and 266th Range Squadron teamed with Sailors from Whidbey Island, Wash.; Marines from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.; British Army joint terminal attack controllers; Marine JTACs; and Air Force, Marine and British special forces for the intense combat training scenarios.

Realistic training provides the U.S. and partnered warfighters with the combat edge.

Mountain Home has the right mix of air space, modern ranges and proficient personnel, which makes this base and ranges the perfect location for this type of combined-joint training.

The 366th Operations Support Squadron hosted the exercise and solicited all participants, set up times, airspace and players for the close-air support scenarios, said Air Force Maj. Dave "Mach" Cochran, 366th OSS Wing Weapons and Systems chief.

If the U.S. Air Force, Air Guard, Navy, Marines and British partners were all pieces of an international interoperability puzzle, the 366th OSS is the mechanism to assemble the pieces.

"Our primary role at wing weapons and tactics is to be knowledgeable about all pieces," said Cochran. "We develop relationships and integration proficiency by creating and executing exercises like this. The relationships we make this week and the tactics we practice could very well be used in combat in the near future to maximize the effectiveness of the joint and coalition force."

For any enemy forces seeking refuge from America's war fighters, the Navy forces at VAQ-139 Whidbey Island, provide airborne electronic attack to suppress their air defense systems and communication nodes.

"Our squadron operates the EA-18G Growler that is one of the only purpose built aircraft in the (Department of Defense), which provides electronic attack against enemy air defenses providing a sanctuary for friendly forces," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joshua VanNyhuis, VAQ-139 training officer. "We expect to have friendly ground and air forces meet all of their objectives with zero friendly losses or fratricide by controlling the electromagnetic spectrum."

Combat air power translates to lives saved on for ground forces. No one knows this realism more than Special Forces.

"The simulated threats and scenarios we develop here will undoubtedly save lives in Afghanistan or wherever the next war takes us," said an Air Force CCT, a member of the most highly trained special operations force in the U.S. military; a team that spends more than two years in initial entry training. "This is the optimal range to work because we get the right mix of Air Force, joint and foreign partners here, and can culminate all our mutual skill sets into a perfect execution of CAS, shows of force or other assaults on realistic threat scenarios."

That realism the CCT eluded to is paramount for both air and ground forces in this type of exercise, said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin Summers, 266th RANS ground radar systems technician.

"Our unit's role is to portray the bad guy," said Summers. "We use real-time data and information we gain through our own intelligence to realistically simulate what the enemy does. We operate radars and simulate attacking aircraft, and then the aircrew can practice evading."

Once training is complete, the 266th RANS provides video and written feedback to the crews for training.

"We create an electronic warfare environment that they'd encounter overseas and in any contingency today," said Air Force Master Sgt. Bernard Castro, 266th RANS ground radar work center supervisor. "This isn't a practice for us, we put our prime operators in the seat and provide our pilots the most realistic training possible."

Working with Marines, Navy and British allies helps all parties out by enhancing communication across the forces, which is what you'd have in a real wartime situation, said Summers.

"We can simulate almost any threat in the world to near perfection. We add even more realism by providing exercise surface to air missile attacks, which aircrew will need to evade," said Summers. "We provide them the most realistic training opportunity available and are always seeking improvements and be ever evolving."

Today's mix of allied ground, air and space force provides national leaders the unmatched ability to take early, rapid and decisive action in combat, peacekeeping or humanitarian operations.

In training for warfare, realism is paramount, said Castro.

Mountain Home and the 266th RANS control and maintain emitter sites across almost 7,500-square miles of operational range space, and it's that access to airspace and ranges that allows for realistic, safe training and testing while providing the flexibility to accommodate the complexity of this multinational, multiservice exercise and for real world scenarios for all forces today and into the future.