A-10 Pilots, Army Brigade Combat Teams Train
at Green Flag
By Air Force News Agency -February 3, 2017
Pilots from the 74th Fighter Squadron
prepared for future deployments while participating in Green Flag-West 17-03
from Jan. 13-27 at Nellis Air Force Base.
GFW is an air-land integration exercise that
gives Air Force pilots a chance to conduct realistic close air support in a
joint training environment designed to mirror the current conditions present in
overseas contingency operations.
“Green Flag is a big exercise where we get to
train with a lot of Army assets that we don’t normally work with,” said Air
Force Maj. Michael Dumas, the 23rd Fighter Group chief of standards and
evaluation. “We’re supporting an entire brigade combat team, more than 4,500
guys, and being involved in that kind of large force exercise is really great
training for us. It’s especially important for our younger guys who have never
been exposed to this kind of integration.”
Air Force 1st Lt. Kyle Singletary, an A-10C
Thunderbolt II pilot from the 74th FS, is on his first large-scale exercise
with the squadron.
“I think Green Flag is preparing us well
because we get to see what the Army would actually look like on the ground in a
deployed environment,” Singletary said. “We get to see what close air support
is supposed to be doing in a large-scale battle and the associated difficulties
that come along with it, like battle tracking, finding targets and flying
alongside artillery fire.
“These are the scenarios we try to simulate
back home in our training,” Singletary continued. “So the main difference, and
the real benefit of coming out here, is that it’s all real.”
An added benefit of the realism inherent with
an exercise this size is an extra challenge called battle tracking, keeping
track of the targets as they move and react to friendly force movements.
“It’s a pretty cool problem to have because
it’s very difficult for us to simulate back home,” Dumas said. “It’s the same
training every day, so we all know where the targets are. Here, there’s a bunch
of stuff on the ground and you don’t always know what it is. Providing close
are support while working through the uncertainty of finding the friendlies to
protect and the targets to kill is really important practice for when we go to
support Operation Inherent Resolve.”
The friendly forces and targets alike are on
the ground at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, where the
Army conducts pre-deployment certification training and according to Army Capt.
Zachary Busenbark, the 357th Ground Liaison Detachment, 4th Battlefield
Coordination Detachment ground liaison officer, realism is the name of the game.
“The entire purpose of the NTC is to make
training as realistic as possible,” Busenbark said. “It tests all of the ground
commander’s systems: maneuver, artillery, infantry, tanks, the cooks, the intel
guys … everyone’s getting a piece of the training. Bringing in the A-10s to
support just absolutely adds the element of authenticity.
“Real CAS is tangible,” Busenbark said. “I
think that’s why it’s vital to have these assets out here.”
Original post: defencetalk.com
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A-10 Thunderbolt: Details
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