Australia Participates in Red Flag Alaska: June 2014

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
07/01/2014

07/01/2014:The Royal Australian Air Force brought two C-130J aircraft for the second iteration of exercise Red Flag-Alaska 2014.

This video shows footage of the Royal Australian Air Force participating in Red Flag 14-2.

 Credit:Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Public Affairs:6/25/14

RAAF, JASDF, National Guard, active duty take part in Red Flag-Alaska

6/26/14

By Air Force Staff Sgt. Wes Wright
JBER Public Affairs 6/26/2014 – JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska —

“Throw another shrimp on the barbie, mate,” is a phrase often associated with Australians, or sometimes Americans trying to imitate an Australian accent; and while Hugh Jackman isn’t available to participate in Red Flag-Alaska 14-2, perhaps two C-130J Hercules and a contingent of nearly 70 Royal Australian Air Force personnel can stand in for him. The Australians, along with the Japan Air Self Defense Force, and U.S. Air National Guard and active duty units, are just a few of the organizations participating in Red Flag-Alaska 14-2, a joint/coalition, tactical air combat employment exercise that started June 12 and runs until June 27.

During Red Flag, aircrews are subjected to every conceivable combat threat, and scenarios are shaped to meet each exercise’s specific training objectives. At the height of the exercise, up to 70 aircraft could be operating in the same airspace at one time. “This isn’t war. This is as close as we can come to simulating how we would be fighting in a war,” said Air Force Maj. David Balmer, 302d Fighter Squadron F-22 Raptor pilot.

“So, hopefully, the first time I’m under that type of stress is not when I’m actually in combat.” Commanding officer for the RAAF’s No. 37 Squadron, Wing Commander Darren Goldie, said exercises like Red Flag-Alaska are an important training opportunity for his personnel. “We’ll be flying Hercules on tactical airlift missions as part of a wider group of aircraft that includes strike jets, fighters and surveillance aircraft,” Goldie said.

As is often the case, foreign and Lower 48 military organizations are confronted with unique airspace challenges in Alaska, such as its rugged terrain and vast expanses. “The training environment at Red Flag-Alaska is one of the world’s most complicated recreations of a modern battle space, with simulated missiles, enemy radar systems, and ‘aggressor’ fighter jets,” Goldie said.

Flight Lieutenant Dan Johnson, RAAF C-130 captain, is one of the pilots experiencing those challenges. “The terrain here is unlike anything we have in Australia,” Johnson said. “To come into a contested environment that has enemy aircraft and ground threats is a challenge.

Red Flag is really the first opportunity we’ve had as a squadron to test our training.” Air Force Lt. Col Dylan Baumgartner, Detachment 1, 353d Combat Training Squadron commander, said learning how to integrate with coalition partners is a primary objective for the exercise. “Sometimes even our own services have challenges integrating and communicating with each other,” Baumgartner said. “Red Flag gives them an opportunity to learn how we plan and for us to learn how they plan. It’s important to get our aircraft systems working together: radios, data links, etc.”

One aircraft system the Aussies are integrating and counting on to assist in prevention of an enemy attack is a recently upgraded electronic warfare self-protection system, which makes its debut at Red Flag. “The aircrew have been developing techniques to use these systems, but Exercise Red Flag Alaska will provide a suitably complex training environment before we ever have to employ it in the real world,” Goldie said.

“Everyone who comes to Red Flag Alaska gets something from this, including our maintenance personnel, logistics and supply workforce, and personnel capability specialists.” While Aussie maintenance personnel are tackling their Alaska challenges, Airmen from Nevada’s Air National Guard, are also hard at work. Tech. Sgt. Tom Maples, Nevada Air National Guard, 152d Airlift Wing C-130 maintainer, is one of those Airmen.

“I believe these exercises are very important,” Maples said. “As a maintainer it is my training that helps maintain mission readiness. The environment in Alaska is very challenging for flying and it’s challenging as a maintainer. We have to be flexible to adapt to ever-changing conditions.” Maples said interaction with coalition partners has enhanced his unit’s effectiveness.

“There is excellent collaboration with our partners, the Australian and Japanese,” Maples said. “During engine changes, they have helped us with tools and knowledge. It’s a great team effort to keep the mission going.” Baumgartner explained that trial and error are what provide valuable lessons for aircrews to take forward. “I think the best thing about Red Flag Alaska is seeing the lessons come out of the fights,” Baumgartner said.

“When we finish the flying portion of the day, we spend a good three to four hours dissecting what went well and what went wrong. We consistently get very good feedback from our guests here.” Goldie said he agreed. “Coming to Alaska to work alongside foreign militaries is also critical to our success on real-world operations,” the Australian native said. “It is extremely fulfilling for us to have this opportunity.”

While the Aussies were not able to bring a “wolverine” with them to launch at the enemy, one RAF squadron does return with its claws sharpened; the Nevada Air National Guard returns home hoping to have raised the stakes on mission effectiveness; and the Japanese fly off into the rising sunset having increased good fortune for their Air Self Defense Force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CRG Sets Up in Baltic Exercise

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/27/2014

06/27/2014: If you need a rapid runway set up or runway repair, the USAF calls on its unique Crisis Response Group capability.

In this video, the 435th CRG is seen landing in Latvia and participating in the Saber Strike 2014 exercise.

Credit:86th Airlift Wing:6/6/14

According to the Lithuanian Armed Forces website:

Exercise Saber Strike is an annual multinational exercise organized by the U. S. Army in Europe, (USAREUR) and hosted by the three Baltic States. Saber Strike 2014 is the fourth iteration of the exercise.

Expanding each year, Exercise Saber Strike encompasses a growing number of NATO and partner states. This year the exercise is training a record number of approximately 4.5 thousand participants from 10 NATO and partner nations – Canada, Denmark, Estonia, the U.S.A., the UK, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Finland. Several hundreds of the exercise training audience is training in Estonia, around 2 thousand in Latvia and approximately 2.3 thousand – in Lithuania.

This year Exercise Saber Strike 2014 includes brigade-level command post exercise and tactical field exercise conducted concurrently on June 9 through 20. The exercise is training interoperability in combined NATO units, coordination of actions, and readiness to execute defensive and offensive operations.

http://kariuomene.kam.lt/en/international_military_exercises/siber_strike_2014.html

 

 

First Ever All Afghan Air Crew C-130 Flight: The Preparation

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/25/2014

06/25/2014: The Afghan Air Force hit a huge milestone by completing the first ever all Afghan air crew C-130 flight June 16, 2014 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

 Their mission consisted of cargo, CASEVAC and PAX transport.

The Afghan Air Force has been working hard the last 11 months with U.S. Air Advisors from the 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron accomplishing this flight goal eight months ahead of schedule.

Credit: U.S. Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs:6/18/14

The events in Iraq remind us of the importance of shaping an effective transition in Afghanistan.  And airpower is a crucial element for any overall Afghan transition, to ensure that the Afghans can use airpower to defend themselves, pursue terrorists and to provide a partner for Western forces, which might need to come back to aid and assist.

We argued in a Joint Forces Quarterly piece earlier this year, that such an airpower transition in Afghanistan is crucial to mission success.

In the debate over the acquisition of the light-attack aircraft for Afghan forces, a key opportunity to shape a 21st-century option may be missed. A light-attack aircraft such as the Embraer Air Super Tucano, when combined with several other rugged air assets capable of being maintained in a variety of partner nations, could not only form a core capability crucial to the defense of the partnership nation, but also provide a solid baseline capability for a long-term working relationship with the United States or its allies.

The value of a counterinsurgency (COIN) aircraft versus a more advanced fighter can be lost when the issue is 21st-century higher end warfare. A rugged aircraft such as the Super Tucano can operate for longer periods at considerably less cost than advanced fighters. It can be configured with command and control (C2) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and links and can dialogue with forces on the ground.

Colonel Bill Buckey, USMC (Ret.), the deputy commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Airbase at Kandahar in 2009, explains:

One of the things that the special operations forces, who started the idea of the whole Imminent Fury piece, wanted was the ability to have a partner in that light attack platform; a TAC-A [tactical air commander–airborne] or supporting arms coordinator that would be above them in the air and who, if things got ugly, could then marshal in other aircraft. The guys sitting at Creech [Air Force Base, Nevada] can’t do that. . . .

The individual in the backseat of the aircraft is the one that’s going to be communicating to these jets who are still 30 minutes away—15 minutes away, an hour away—and giving them the target brief and the whole situational awareness piece of what’s going on while they ingress, which is something that your guy at Creech is not going to be able to do. . . .

But now that’s the tactical piece. The operational piece is back to the whole COIN environment. Again, [perhaps what] you’re trying to do in a COIN environment is drive your cost of doing business down as close as you can to the level of the other guy; right now, UAVs[unmanned aerial vehicles] ain’t cheap. . . .

You’ve got a tremendous logistics piece; you’ve got the sophisticated communications infrastructure required to fly them. You’ve got the whole piece back in [the continental United States] in order to operate them. Your cost of doing business is huge and you also have reliability issues. The accident rates are not great with UAVs right now. . . . And in terms of that ability to act as FAC-A [forward air controller–airborne], that’s something that you just can’t get with a UAV.

Even though the acquisition of such aircraft for U.S. forces is not on the table, their use by partners is already prevalent in many parts of the world. Partnerships with allies flying such aircraft provide interesting possibilities.

This is not just an abstraction but has been demonstrated by 12th U.S. Air Force working with the Dominican Republic air force. The 12th provides ISR support to other nations’ combat air capabilities. U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) and the Dominican Republic air force have combined—with US SOUTHCOM providing an ISR input and the Dominican Republic flying the Super Tucano—the same planes that will be used by the Afghans.

This remarkable and replicable success is made possible by U.S. “hi” ISR technology in partnership with the Dominican Republic “lo” technology, the Super Tucano.

The opportunity to further evolve such a model of cooperation is being forged in the period of transition in Afghanistan.

The Air Force, NATO, and other allies have been working for many years to shape an unheralded airpower transition. The core idea has been to provide the Afghans with an integrated air force that can provide for their needs and be robust and easy to maintain, and then partner with this air force. That would allow the United States and its allies to leave a force behind that could provide mobile ground forces supported by correlated ground assets. This sound Western force package would then be able to work effectively with the core Afghan air force as well. A real transition could be forged, one still able to engage in effective combat against the Taliban.

The broad trajectory of change for the Afghan air force has been to move from a Russian-equipped force in disrepair to shaping a mixed fleet of aircraft able to support the various missions that the Afghans need: transport, ground support, counterinsurgency, inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR), and strike.

The core fleet of aging Mi-35s and AN-32s will be replaced by a mixed fleet, along with capabilities to replace the battlefield lift provided by the Chinook heavy-lift helicopter.

Shaping the right fleet is crucial to shaping an effective training mission.

For our look at what the right fleet might look like, see our Special Report on the Afghan airpower transition:

http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/shaping-the-afghan-transition-the-airpower-dimension/).

Putting a reliable and rugged and easily maintainable lift aircraft with the Super Tucano and the Mi-17 fleet along with Cessna trainers is the core force for the Afghan air force going forward. Interviews with American and French military operators in Afghanistan have hit hard on a key theme: airpower is central to today’s operations, and there is a clear need to arm the Afghan allies with a functional capability along the same lines. The Afghan military population has come to appreciate air support as a key element of future success and security (in particular, a Medevac ability being part of any operation).

As Major General Glenn Walters, USMC, commented when he returned from Afghanistan:

Our role will be to support the Afghan security forces.

You’re going to have to support those guys, and they’re going to be much more distributed. You’re not going to have the battalions out there that you support people on the FABs [forward air bases] have.

It’s going to have to be from a central location. And the QRF [quick reaction force] is going to have to be good, and it’s going to have to be there quickly. In the end, we have to be able to prove to the Afghan security forces that if something happens, this platoon is good enough until we get someone in there. . . . If you ever need more than a platoon’s worth of trigger pullers in a district center, the V-22s [Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft] is how you’re going to get there quickly and decisively enough to matter. . . .

The Afghan National Army and Afghan Security Forces understand, from their perspective, how important air is.

We have made them big consumers. They know that the air is there for them; they’ll go out and operate.

I’ve had more than one brigade commander tell me that if it wasn’t for the medevac, [if] it wasn’t for the resupply, and if it wasn’t for the aviation fires, he didn’t think he could get the battalions out operating like they do.

Because they’ve learned that if they get hurt, we’ll fix them. They know if they run out of bullets, we’ll get them bullets. And if they’re hungry or thirsty, we’ll get them food and water. . . . 

As the U.S. looks forward to work with allies worldwide in the years to come on COIN and related operations, the U.S. will not be bringing the entire gamut of capability to the party.

Working with allies in current and projected financial conditions requires a new formula: the U.S. supports allies who can fend for themselves, up to a point.

Western powers are facing the endgame in Afghanistan.

If the Afghans as a nation are going to work together to shape a COIN and defense strategy, airpower is a crucial lynchpin. Working together with an air-enabled Afghan force, Washington could continue to influence the necessary outcomes in the war against terror and at the same time pull out most of its troops. That would be a war-winning formula the Army might want to consider for its global future.

http://ndupress.ndu.edu/Media/News/NewsArticleView/tabid/7849/Article/8395/jfq-72-forging-a-21st-century-military-strategy-leveraging-challenges.aspx

 

 

 

 

Arctic Pegasus Interviews

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/24/2014

06/24/2014: Footage of a heavy cargo drop followed by Airborne Soldiers jumping at the Deadhorse drop zone and UH-60 Arctic operations as well as interviews from participants of Arctic Pegasus 2014.

This mobility exercise enables the military to build proficiency in Arctic Airborne operations in extreme cold-weather conditions.

Arctic Pegasus 2014 is a Joint-Interagency Military training exercise held above the Arctic Circle, with a goal to enhance U.S. Army Alaska’s mobility and operability in arctic conditions.

It is a collaborative effort between from the 6th Engineer Battalion, the Alaska Army National Guard, Air Mobility Command, and the Alyeska.

Includes comments from from 1st Lt. Robert Tester, Executive Officer, 84th Engineer Support Co.; Lt. Col. William Conde, Commanding Officer, 6th Engineer Battalion (Combat Airborne); Command Sgt. Maj. Ronaldo Jordan, Senior Enlisted Advisor, 6th Engineer Battalion (Combat Airborne) and Staff Sgt. John Metger, Supply Sgt. 84th Engineer Support Co.


  Credit: US Army Alaska: 5/2/14

First Ever All Afghan Air Crew C-130 Flight: The Take-off and Return

Posted on | by Caroline Teames

06/24/2014: The Afghan Air Force hit a huge milestone by completing the first ever all Afghan air crew C-130 flight June 16, 2014 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Their mission consisted of cargo, CASEVAC and PAX transport.

The Afghan Air Force has been working hard the last 11 months with U.S. Air Advisors from the 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron accomplishing this flight goal eight months ahead of schedule.

Credit:U.S. Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs:6/18/14

The events in Iraq remind us of the importance of shaping an effective transition in Afghanistan.  And airpower is a crucial element for any overall Afghan transition, to ensure that the Afghans can use airpower to defend themselves, pursue terrorists and to provide a partner for Western forces, which might need to come back to aid and assist.

We argued in a Joint Forces Quarterly piece earlier this year, that such an airpower transition in Afghanistan is crucial to mission success.

In the debate over the acquisition of the light-attack aircraft for Afghan forces, a key opportunity to shape a 21st-century option may be missed. A light-attack aircraft such as the Embraer Air Super Tucano, when combined with several other rugged air assets capable of being maintained in a variety of partner nations, could not only form a core capability crucial to the defense of the partnership nation, but also provide a solid baseline capability for a long-term working relationship with the United States or its allies.

The value of a counterinsurgency (COIN) aircraft versus a more advanced fighter can be lost when the issue is 21st-century higher end warfare. A rugged aircraft such as the Super Tucano can operate for longer periods at considerably less cost than advanced fighters. It can be configured with command and control (C2) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and links and can dialogue with forces on the ground.

Colonel Bill Buckey, USMC (Ret.), the deputy commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Airbase at Kandahar in 2009, explains:

One of the things that the special operations forces, who started the idea of the whole Imminent Fury piece, wanted was the ability to have a partner in that light attack platform; a TAC-A [tactical air commander–airborne] or supporting arms coordinator that would be above them in the air and who, if things got ugly, could then marshal in other aircraft. The guys sitting at Creech [Air Force Base, Nevada] can’t do that. . . .

The individual in the backseat of the aircraft is the one that’s going to be communicating to these jets who are still 30 minutes away—15 minutes away, an hour away—and giving them the target brief and the whole situational awareness piece of what’s going on while they ingress, which is something that your guy at Creech is not going to be able to do. . . .

But now that’s the tactical piece. The operational piece is back to the whole COIN environment. Again, [perhaps what] you’re trying to do in a COIN environment is drive your cost of doing business down as close as you can to the level of the other guy; right now, UAVs[unmanned aerial vehicles] ain’t cheap. . . .

You’ve got a tremendous logistics piece; you’ve got the sophisticated communications infrastructure required to fly them. You’ve got the whole piece back in [the continental United States] in order to operate them. Your cost of doing business is huge and you also have reliability issues. The accident rates are not great with UAVs right now. . . . And in terms of that ability to act as FAC-A [forward air controller–airborne], that’s something that you just can’t get with a UAV.

Even though the acquisition of such aircraft for U.S. forces is not on the table, their use by partners is already prevalent in many parts of the world. Partnerships with allies flying such aircraft provide interesting possibilities.

This is not just an abstraction but has been demonstrated by 12th U.S. Air Force working with the Dominican Republic air force. The 12th provides ISR support to other nations’ combat air capabilities. U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) and the Dominican Republic air force have combined—with US SOUTHCOM providing an ISR input and the Dominican Republic flying the Super Tucano—the same planes that will be used by the Afghans.technology, the Super Tucano.

The opportunity to further evolve such a model of cooperation is being forged in the period of transition in Afghanistan.

The Air Force, NATO, and other allies have been working for many years to shape an unheralded airpower transition. The core idea has been to provide the Afghans with an integrated air force that can provide for their needs and be robust and easy to maintain, and then partner with this air force. That would allow the United States and its allies to leave a force behind that could provide mobile ground forces supported by correlated ground assets. This sound Western force package would then be able to work effectively with the core Afghan air force as well. A real transition could be forged, one still able to engage in effective combat against the Taliban.

The broad trajectory of change for the Afghan air force has been to move from a Russian-equipped force in disrepair to shaping a mixed fleet of aircraft able to support the various missions that the Afghans need: transport, ground support, counterinsurgency, inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR), and strike.

The core fleet of aging Mi-35s and AN-32s will be replaced by a mixed fleet, along with capabilities to replace the battlefield lift provided by the Chinook heavy-lift helicopter.

Shaping the right fleet is crucial to shaping an effective training mission.

For our look at what the right fleet might look like, see our Special Report on the Afghan airpower transition:

http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/shaping-the-afghan-transition-the-airpower-dimension/).

Putting a reliable and rugged and easily maintainable lift aircraft with the Super Tucano and the Mi-17 fleet along with Cessna trainers is the core force for the Afghan air force going forward. Interviews with American and French military operators in Afghanistan have hit hard on a key theme: airpower is central to today’s operations, and there is a clear need to arm the Afghan allies with a functional capability along the same lines. The Afghan military population has come to appreciate air support as a key element of future success and security (in particular, a Medevac ability being part of any operation).

As Major General Glenn Walters, USMC, commented when he returned from Afghanistan:

Our role will be to support the Afghan security forces.

You’re going to have to support those guys, and they’re going to be much more distributed. You’re not going to have the battalions out there that you support people on the FABs [forward air bases] have.

It’s going to have to be from a central location. And the QRF [quick reaction force] is going to have to be good, and it’s going to have to be there quickly. In the end, we have to be able to prove to the Afghan security forces that if something happens, this platoon is good enough until we get someone in there. . . . If you ever need more than a platoon’s worth of trigger pullers in a district center, the V-22s [Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft] is how you’re going to get there quickly and decisively enough to matter. . . .

The Afghan National Army and Afghan Security Forces understand, from their perspective, how important air is.

We have made them big consumers. They know that the air is there for them; they’ll go out and operate.

I’ve had more than one brigade commander tell me that if it wasn’t for the medevac, [if] it wasn’t for the resupply, and if it wasn’t for the aviation fires, he didn’t think he could get the battalions out operating like they do.

Because they’ve learned that if they get hurt, we’ll fix them. They know if they run out of bullets, we’ll get them bullets. And if they’re hungry or thirsty, we’ll get them food and water. . . . 

As the U.S. looks forward to work with allies worldwide in the years to come on COIN and related operations, the U.S. will not be bringing the entire gamut of capability to the party.

Working with allies in current and projected financial conditions requires a new formula: the U.S. supports allies who can fend for themselves, up to a point.

Western powers are facing the endgame in Afghanistan.

If the Afghans as a nation are going to work together to shape a COIN and defense strategy, airpower is a crucial lynchpin. Working together with an air-enabled Afghan force, Washington could continue to influence the necessary outcomes in the war against terror and at the same time pull out most of its troops. That would be a war-winning formula the Army might want to consider for its global future.

http://ndupress.ndu.edu/Media/News/NewsArticleView/tabid/7849/Article/8395/jfq-72-forging-a-21st-century-military-strategy-leveraging-challenges.aspx

 

 

 

 

BALTOPS 2014: An Exercise in a New Threat Environment

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/23/2014

06/23/2014: The Russian seizure of Crimea and continuing direct threats to Ukraine have enhanced concerns for the defense of the Baltic states.

Credit: Natochannel :6/16/14

Since 1971, BALTOPS has provided an annual multinational maritime exercise aims to improve interoperability and strengthen relationships between participating nations.

The objective is to promote maritime safety and security in the Baltic Sea. BALTOPS 2014 is hosted by the United States European Command and involves NATO and non-NATO countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In this video from BALTOPS 2014 U.S. Navy Capt. Craig Clapperton, commanding officer USS Mount Whitney, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Richard Snyder, commander of Task Force 162, BALTOPS, Expeditionary Strike Group Two, and Commander James Parkin, Royal Navy, UK, commander office of HMS Montrose discuss the exercise.

 

The Secretary General Warns that the Wales NATO Summit is a Turning Point

Posted on | by Caroline Teames

06/23/2014:NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen met British Prime Minister David Cameron to prepare Wales Summit. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Wales Summit in September “will be one of the most important in NATO’s history.”

Visiting London on Thursday (19 June) for meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, he said it was “fitting that the Summit should take place in the United Kingdom, which plays such a leading role in NATO.”

Credit:Natochannel:6/19/14

Arctic Pegasus

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/22/2014

06/22/2014: One of the skill sets used with effect in Afghanistan has been precision air dropping.  This experience is being carried forward elsewhere.

In this video, footage is shown of a heavy cargo drop followed by Airborne Soldiers jumping at the Deadhorse drop zone for Arctic Pegasus 2014.

This mobility exercise enables the military to build proficiency in Arctic Airborne operations in extreme cold-weather conditions.

Arctic Pegasus 2014 is a Joint-Interagency Military training exercise held above the Arctic Circle, with a goal to enhance U.S. Army Alaska’s mobility and operability in arctic conditions.  

It is a collaborative effort between from the 6th Engineer Battalion, the Alaska Army National Guard, Air Mobility Command, and the Alyeska Pipeline Service.


 Credit: United States Army Alaska:5/1/14