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BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – From Aug. 5-18, approximately 65 members of the 110th Attack Wing, Battle Creek Air National Guard Base, will join military units from the U.S., United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Latvia at Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center and across northern Michigan, for exercise Northern Strike 18.
Northern Strike is a robust military readiness event hosted annually at Michigan National Guard facilities, which, in addition to Alpena CRTC, will include Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, Grayling Air-to-Ground Range, the Carmeuse Calcite Quarry in Rogers City, and the former site of K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula. With approximately 5,000 participating Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines, Northern Strike is the largest joint reserve component exercise supported by the U.S. military. Its mission is to maximize the full-spectrum combat readiness of National Guard units through realistic, cost-effective joint fires training in an adaptable environment, with an emphasis on cooperation between joint and coalition forces.
Airmen from Battle Creek Air National Guard Base will play an integral role in the execution of on-site support functions for the exercise including command and control, transportation, public affairs, and Intelligence analysis. Medical specialists from the 110th will participate in aeromedical evacuation drills in Alpena and Rogers City, while other airmen will provide remote support for the exercise in the form of virtual planning execution from their posts at Battle Creek Air National Guard Base.
"Northern Strike is a massive exercise in its scope and significance in ensuring the readiness of the U.S. military's reserve components,” said Col. Bryan Teff, 110th Attack Wing commander. “Believe it or not, Michigan is host to the largest training airspace complex east of the Mississippi, and combined with the 146,000 acres of ground maneuver space at Camp Grayling, makes Michigan an ideal location to conduct joint training of this magnitude."
Alpena CRTC will be the focal point of air operations during the exercise. Fixed wing aircraft scheduled to participate include the A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, C-130 Hercules, MQ-9 Reaper, KC-135 Stratotanker, E-8C Joint STARS, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Cessna 182, RC-26, as well as rotary aircraft including the UH-60 Blackhawk, AH-1W Super Cobra, CH-47 Chinook, and the UH-1Y Venom/Super Huey. The Northern Strike live-fire exercise involves small arms, mortars, artillery, and aerial munitions at the Camp Grayling range complex and Lake Huron water range, along with simulated-fire exercises at locations such as the Carmeuse Lime and Stone Calcite Quarry in Rogers City, some coastal waters of Lake Huron, and Mullet Lake in Cheboygan County. Close air support is the primary air mission, with other secondary missions including air interdiction, airlift and airdrop, combat search and rescue, air-to-air refueling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Northern Strike also presents a unique opportunity to showcase collaboration between the Michigan National Guard and partner nations, including Latvia. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Michigan National Guard’s partnership with the National Armed Forces of Latvia under the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program (SPP). Latvian personnel will work side-by-side with Michigan National Guard Soldiers and Airmen during air and ground combat capability drills in Alpena. Increasing collaboration between Latvian military personnel and airmen from Battle Creek Air National Guard Base exists in the areas of security forces/airbase defense, medical readiness, public affairs, civil engineering, air traffic control, and intelligence analysis.
"Michigan’s partnership with the National Armed Forces of Latvia was the first relationship formed under the SPP in 1993,” said Lt. Col. Dustin Budd, Bilateral Affairs Officer for the Michigan National Guard. “Since then, the SPP has grown in size and scope over the decades and pays dividends beyond what anyone could have originally expected. Exercise Northern Strike is a key event in this partnership because it puts American and Latvian service members side-by-side in realistic incident management scenarios that test the skills, trust, and mutual experience they've built over time."
The Michigan National Guard’s collaboration with the National Armed Forces of Latvia war born out of strong pre-existing cultural ties. During World War II, some 5,000 Latvian refugees settled in Michigan to escape Soviet brutality; strong Latvian-American communities exist to this day in cities such as Kalamazoo.
“The 110th Attack Wing is very proud to support Northern Strike each year,” said Teff. “The opportunity to train like we fight alongside our multinational partners right here in Michigan is always an extraordinary experience – definitely one of the highlights of our calendar year.”
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.02.2018 11:54 |
| Story ID: | 286893 |
| Location: | BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 288 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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