82nd Airborne integrates with USAFWS for JFE 14B

by Staff Sgt. Siuta B. Ika
99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

12/10/2014 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- Approximately 100 aircraft, including more than 50 C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster IIIs, teamed up with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to execute the U.S. Air Force Weapons School's Joint Forcible Entry Exercise 14B Dec. 6 on the Nevada Test and Training Range.

The Weapons School's Advanced Integration, or AI, phase is the capstone event that culminates a 5-month course for its students. AI includes a joint forcible entry exercise which is a large-scale, joint, air mobility event during which participants plan, seize and hold lodgments against armed opposition in the air and on the ground.

A lodgment is a designated area in a hostile or potentially hostile operational area that, when seized and held, makes the continuous landing of troops and materiel possible and provides maneuver space for subsequent operations.

"The JFE allows us to train 10 to 12 of the U.S. Air Force's core competencies in a joint and integrated training environment," said Capt. Andy Miller, 29th Weapons Squadron and JFE 14B instructor of record. "Here at the Weapons School, we're able to instill in our students the tactical-level tools that will enable them to be successful in the future, in the planning and execution of a joint forcible entry. In this case, we're able to take a glimpse at both the operational and strategic level impacts of this capability."

Before more than 100 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne could descend onto the exercise's objective area on the NTTR to gain control of the land, Weapons School students were responsible for seizing control of the air from the "enemy" forces of the 64th Aggressor Squadron. Overall, more than 1,000 personnel, including six general officers, and $8.7 billion in assets were involved in the exercise.

"This has been a great opportunity for me personally to understand how the planning process works in an integrated environment and how other players can influence what we do as a [mission design series], as an airframe, and then working with those players to figure out how we can come together and get the job done," said Capt. Collin Lohr, JFE 14B student air mission commander.

Because joint forcible entry operations demand careful planning and thorough preparation; synchronized, violent and rapid execution; and leader initiative at every level to deal with friction, chance and opportunity, all participants in JFE 14B gained knowledge that will help in future operations, explained Brig. Gen. Brian S. Robinson, JFE 14B joint forces air component commander and 618th Air and Space Operations Center vice commander, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

"Any exercise, particularly JFE exercises, preps our Airmen to better employ as part of an integrated force, in this case a joint force ... you learn from each other -- the Army and the Air Force -- and we learn as Airmen as well, from the different communities at which we operate our platforms," Robinson said. "As a weapons officer this one is near and dear to my heart. [Integrating with] the 82nd Airborne and air dropping them is something I've done my entire career flying C-130s and C-17s. The fact that we can bring upwards of 50 or more aircraft together from around different parts of the country with the same objective area and air space, do that safely, effectively and meet the objectives is significant."

U.S. Air Force Weapons School class 14B is scheduled to graduate on Dec. 13.