Weapons school completes large-scale mobility exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ryan Whitney
  • Nellis Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. --  Two U.S. Air Force Weapons School squadrons and 40 heavy body aircraft crews completed a Mobility Air Forces Exercise, over the Nevada Test and Training Range, Nov. 18.

"This is essentially the capstone for our Weapons Instructor Course, helping us learn how to plan, schedule and execute large-scale operations with not only other units from across the Air Force, but with the Army as well," said Capt. Daniel Hilferty, USAFWS C-130 student and student planner for the exercise.

The MAFEX exercise is designed to culminate months of training that the students have received and challenge them to plan and execute a joint forcible entry airborne assault operation, integrating assets from across the world.

This is the fifth time the biannual exercise has taken place, with this iteration involving more than 50 aircraft and 1,500 servicemembers, including nearly 400 Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne and airframes ranging from F-15E Strike Eagles and HH-60 Pavehawks to C-130 Hercules and the MQ-9 Reaper.

"We integrate the students with other airframes and services so they have a better understanding of what they will be seeing when they leave here," said Lt. Col. Kevin Oliver, USAFWS deputy commandant and C-130 pilot. "The integrated lessons learned provided by this event drive Air Force and joint warfighting expertise to the highest level."

This is the second time Capt. John Paul Kilker, a USAFWS C-130 student, has participated in the MAFEX exercise, first actively flying in the exercise, and now as an exercise planner.

"You get a new appreciation for the guys putting the exercise together behind the scenes as opposed to getting your orders and executing after seeing it from both sides," he said.

"The level of coordination is unbelievable," Captain Hilferty said. "We are bringing aircraft that are taking off from across the country to the Nevada Test and Training Range with an arrival time flexible only by a minute, and giving these aircrew a target drop zone of only 100 yards to drop their troops and gear, and from what I have seen so far, we have been on point with everything."

One of the key components to the exercise was the NTTR, which is maintained by the 98th Range Wing, and serves as the USAFWS's training ground.

"The NTTR is phenomenal; it's a great training theater and the threats that they simulated, provided an experience that I will not forget," Captain Kilker said.

On the surface, the exercise went as planned, but to ensure that the students can learn from their mistakes, the students will sit down with their instructors to scrutinize and evaluate the exercise to see exactly what went right and wrong during the exercise.

"My first impression was that this was very successful. We made all of our drops on time and where they needed to be, but now we are going dig down into it and see what we learned. Even if we don't achieve every objective, the learning experience we got from MAFEX was well worth the work," Captain Hilferty said.