Preparing the warfighter for today's war and tomorrow's fight

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ryan Whitney
  • 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. --  Nellis Air Force Base provides warfighters with the most realistic combat training scenarios on the Nevada Test and Training Range, using 3 million acres of restricted land and 15,000 square miles of airspace located deep in the Nevada desert.

Without the support of the 98th Range Wing Operational Support Squadron Combined Operations Center, the range would be incapable of providing aircrews with the realistic combat training that can only happen here.

"We make it possible for the warfighter to encounter every possible situation here at the NTTR before they head out to the combat air forces by providing them an unprecedented level of command and control infrastructure," said Mr. Joshua Sterling, range operations specialist. "We manage both the air-to-air fight and air-to-ground threats that customers using the range encounter, providing the most realistic threat possible."

The ground threats range from surface-to-air artillery to sophisticated missile systems. Aerial threats include F-15s and F-16s from the 64th and 65th Aggressor Squadrons.

The mission of the COC is to provide red and blue command and control, white force threat control operations, and management of the NTTR's joint data network for missions held over the range, including combat air force and coalition force exercises, tests, training and experimentation.

To manage this information, the COC uses datalinks, or joint data networks, that record and communicate between the combined operations center, aircraft and range equipment.

"We manage and operate four robust datalink networks -- more than any other range -  to provide the users with more situational awareness and a stronger training scenario without degrading the quality of training," said Capt. Charles Walbeck, 98th OSS/Joint Datalink Network Officer Flight commander. "This also provides us the capability to integrate different players on the same network and exchange messages seamlessly."

The four datalink networks consist of blue air (daily), red air (aggressors), exercises and test events.

Since its reopening in February 2005, the COC has supported more than 6,500 missions, as well as 200 large force exercises like Red Flag and the mission employment phase of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School.

The demand for the NTTR is increasing, according to Mr. Sterling. "We continue to grow in the number of users that require use of the COC. Not only do we support Red Flag, Green Flag, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, 64th and 65th AGRS, and USAFWS, but also a growing number of coalition forces that use our equipment to train."

Because the NTTR is in such high demand, one of the biggest challenges the 98th OSS faces is balancing the available range time with all of the requests. On an average day, the NTTR is in use up to 18 hours by multiple players on multiple networks simultaneously executing missions with air and ground forces.

Captain Walbeck said the charge given to the datalink office within the 98th OSS from the USAFWC is "The NTTR has a strategic necessity to possess realistic, current and cutting edge datalink technologies to challenge and prepare today's warfighters from across the world for tomorrow's fight."