391st FS participates in Combat Archer, Hammer

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jeremy L. Mosier
  • 366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho --  The 391st Fighter Squadron departed for Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, to participate in Combat Archer and Hammer March 25, 2018.

These exercises provide aircrew and maintainers from the 366th Fighter Wing an opportunity to evaluate their ability to employ a variety weapons systems throughout all stages of the process.

“Exercises like Combat Archer and Hammer give us an idea of how a missile performs,” said Capt. Zachary Zimmerman, 391st Fighter Squadron flight commander. “Also, they help build confidence in the weapon system and the aircraft itself, so when a munition comes off a jet in combat we know exactly how it is going to perform.”

During these exercises units improve efficiency of deploying a variety of munitions, to include the AIM9X.

Although aircrew and maintainers work with the loading and employing of munitions at home station, Combat Archer and Hammer provide the opportunity to work with larger quantities of live munitions in a short period of time.

“These exercises allow us to evaluate our complete kill chain of a weapon system,” said Lt. Col. Robert Olvis, 391st Fighter Squadron commander. “Being able to go from our munitions troops who build the weapons, to the maintainers who load the weapons, to testing the actual combat system itself to include the aviators who go out and employ those weapons.”