28th BS participates in German mission employment exercise

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Charles V. Rivezzo
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The 28th Bomb Squadron recently participated in the eighth annual Mountain Roundup exercise March 7-22 at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, where they flew sorties with multiple services and nations simulating future NATO operations.

Mountain Roundup is a realistic large force employment exercise conducted yearly at Mountain Home. The primary function of the exercise was to complete the final stage of the German air force Weapons Instructor Course.

"In our current fight we seamlessly integrate every mission with other services and other nations. I'm sure future conflicts will require this capability, as well," said Capt. Alicia Datzman, 28th BS. "As we integrate training with other services and nations, we prepare ourselves to fight in other phases of a war. It means we speak the same tactical language and ease communication and comprehension of each other's strengths and weaknesses."

B-1s from the 28th BS were the only long-range strike aircraft to participate in the exercise. They conducted large-scale Joint Direct Attack Munition releases, close-air support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, convoy support and strike coordination.

"Non-B-1 crewmembers are generally surprised to hear the amount of weapons we bring to a fight, as well as our wide range of capabilities with those weapons and sensors," Datzman said. "Sometimes even our own B-1 crewmembers don't realize how impressive our capabilities are until they participate in joint exercises."

Much like the U.S. Air Force's weapons school mission employment phase, Mountain Roundup serves as a final exam for future German weapon officers. The Fighter Weapons Instructor Course of the German air force, which trains its aircrews at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., deploys to Mountain Home to accomplish the ME phase of the course.

By exploiting the very close and versatile 7,700 square miles of associated airspace, a variety of scenarios of modern air warfare are displayed during the missions in the Mountain Home Range Complex and the two air-to-ground training ranges.

More than 50 aircraft from the United States, Germany, Canada and Singapore participated in the exercise. Marines from the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company also participated in the event as ground forces as well as five joint terminal attack controller teams, making this the largest ME phase ever at Mountain Home.

"It is similar to our own weapons school in that it simulates all phases of a war from initially knocking down the door to providing close-air support to the ground units," Datzman said. "The mission sets we were doing at Mountain Home are skills we train on every day. These integration opportunities give us a chance to showcase our wide range of capabilities and how best to use them."