Exercise tests Airmen's skills during combat entry scenario

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Danielle Johnson
  • 87th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. --  The mission may seem simple: fly into enemy territory, drop equipment, supplies and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne, followed by another airland equipment delivery once the dirt landing strip is ready.

However, things are not always what they seem.

Students of the 29th Weapons Squadron at Little Rock, Air Force Base, Ark., and the 57th Weapons Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., learned just how difficult a mission involving 60 or more aircraft can be during the U.S. Air Force Weapons School's Mobility Air Forces Exercise held over the Nellis Test and Training Range May 20. 

The mission of the weapons school is to teach graduate-level instructor courses that provide the world's most advanced training in weapons and tactics employment to Air Force officers. 

The weapons school is headquartered at Nellis with squadrons also at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.; Dyess Air Force Base, Texas; Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.; Hurlburt Field, Fla.; Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.; McGuire Air Force Base, N.J.; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.

"MAFEX is an opportunity for us to put a large number of aircraft together in a type of exercise that we don't normally get to do," said Maj. Joe Framptom, a 29th WPS student and C-130 pilot from the 41st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. "Any time you put more aircraft together, the problem doesn't get twice as large with twice as many aircraft - it grows exponentially. So it's a great opportunity for us to learn the capabilities of some other weapons systems and try to solve some of the problems that occur with a large operation like this."

The exercise, which is held twice a year, is the largest gathering of mobility air forces for an exercise, said Maj. Russell "Hefty" Parramore, a C-130 pilot and 29th WPS instructor and integration phase manager. The MAFEX was designed to test the students' ability to bring together both combat and mobility air assets to conduct a joint forced entry mission. It also provides all involved an opportunity to practice working with both combat air forces and mobility air forces for this type of operation, which could be compared to the D-Day invasion and Airborne insertion of World War II.

"One of the primary reasons the C-17 was designed was to execute what is called strategic brigade air drop during the first days of opening a large-scale force on the ground where airdrop is the primary means of accessing the area," said Maj. Brian Collins, 57th WPS assistance director of operations and integration phase manager.

"MAFEX is our way of practicing for that no-kidding scenario," he said. "We are taking large-scale forces of C-17s and C-130s and practicing delivering a large Army force on the ground via airdrop and airland follow-on."

During the exercise, which is a sort of culmination for the students, C-17 and C-130 air crews simulated dropping heavy equipment such as Humvees, howitzers, and containers of food supplies, medical equipment and ammunition, followed by the simulated airdrop of a large force of Army paratroopers who "will basically hit the ground running," said Major Collins.

In addition to the challenge of bringing a large number of mobility aircraft into formation to accomplish the airdrop and airland missions, pilots also faced simulated threats from enemy forces during the sorties. To combat these threats, an E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system and an E-8 Joint Surviellance Target Attack Radar System provided support while strike assets such as F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-15E Strike Eagles protected the aircraft.

The students worked with instructors for four-and-a-half months to prepare, said Major Parramore, whose role as phase manager is to make sure the learning objectives are being met. Students had four days to come up with hundreds of contingency plans for the exercise and coordinate these plans with personnel at bases across the United States before bringing the entire mission together in the air above the Nellis Test and Training Range.

"It's a pretty busy scenario, and it's a lot of work without a lot of sleep or downtime, but that's the way it would probably be in real life," said Major Framptom, who will graduate with his fellow students in the coming weeks. "Overall, it's a good experience with a lot of ups and downs in between. I hope that we can develop some new skills and tactics that will help us do this better in real-world, and take some of these lessons back to our home units."