Photo By Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal | An F-15, 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard, takes off during a...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – More than 600 participants from five states participate in the largest Sentry Aloha exercise to date March 6-19.
Sentry Aloha is an air-to-air exercise focused on offensive and defensive counter measures and fighting integration, providing pilots with the opportunity to integrate different generations of aircraft into one air-to-air exercise.
“What were working on here is fifth generation advanced air-to-air tactics,” said Lt. Col. Mike Didio, 112th Fighter Squadron commander, Ohio Air National Guard. “We’re working on defensive counter air missions where basically we’re blue air trying to protect an asset integrated with the [F-22 Raptors]. Then we will move on to an offensive counter air mindset where we’re actually taking the fight to the simulated enemy working with F-22s and F-15 [Eagle].”
For Maj. Brian Moran, 112th Fighter Squadron weapons officer, Ohio Air National Guard, working alongside and supplementing other airframes like the F-22 has been a useful training experience.
“It’s been awesome being able to come out here and support our fifth generation brethren, the F-22,” said Maj. Brian Moran, 112th Fighter Squadron weapons officer, Ohio Air National Guard. “Working with them on the blue side and seeing how we can all integrate together has been great.”
Although Moran has trained beside the F-22 before, Sentry Aloha offers something new for him.
“At Weapons School out at Nellis AFB, I was able to work with the F-22 mostly in air-to-ground missions where [Raptors] provided the escort for us as we were going in to drop the bombs,” Moran said. “This is my first time getting to strictly fly air-to-air with them.”
The location of the exercise also makes Sentry Aloha an uncommon and effective training experience
“[Sentry Aloha] is great and a very rare training opportunity,” said Lt. Col. Mike Didio, 112th Fighter Squadron commander, Ohio Air National Guard. “We get opportunities to train with the F-15 a little more than the F-22. Being out here in the good weather and the great air space over the water is a very good and very unique training opportunity for our guys to make that happen.”
According to Didio, the execution of this year’s Sentry Aloha exercise is how he believes air-to air training will be designed down the road.
“Total force integration is pretty much here to stay and it’s the way of the future,” Didio said. “It seems like this is the trend both in the Guard and the active components to maximize our training with our limited resources we now have available for exercises.”
| Date Taken: | 03.13.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2014 20:13 |
| Story ID: | 121985 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 359 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Sentry Aloha emphasizes aircraft integration, by TSgt Christopher Hubenthal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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