Photo By Winifred Brown | An AH-64 Apache assigned to 3rd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, Combat Aviation...... read more read more
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By Wendy Brown, Fort Bliss Garrison Public Affairs:
DOÑA ANA RANGE, N.M. – AH-64 Apache pilots assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, “Heavy Cav,” Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division, practiced their shooting skills on a variety of weapons here Oct. 11 in preparation for a deployment.
The Army announced Oct. 18 that the 1st AD CAB will deploy to Afghanistan in early 2019 as part of a regular rotation of forces in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The squadron is one of several units within the brigade that will deploy, and the brigade will replace the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Combat Aviation Brigade.
“This training is incredibly important for the individual crew and then (for us) working in teams,” said 1st Lt. David Brown, assistant S-3 in the squadron’s plans and operations section. “We’re going to be working in teams a lot downrange, so being able to practice that live fire is huge.”
Col. Jay Hopkins, commander, 1st AD CAB, said the “Iron Eagles” look forward to working with their Afghan and regional partners during the deployment.
“We are a trained combat aviation brigade, which is prepared to conduct a full range of operations in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel,” Hopkins said. “I have the utmost confidence in our Soldiers and leaders and know they are prepared and ready to support this mission.”Brown said pilots assigned to the unit qualified on live 30mm automatic M230 chain guns, Flechette Rockets, 2.75-inch Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets and simulated Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.
“We are a weapons platform, and that’s what separates Apache pilots from Black Hawk pilots, from Chinook pilots. This is what we do,” Brown said.
One by one, Apache crews flew in front of the Range 50 tower to qualify on the weapons. The battalion has 12 gunnery tables, and they were working on Tables III through VI. Roughly 30 crews planned to qualify on the tables, Brown said.
“We’ve got training mode in the aircraft that makes a noise when you pull the trigger, but there’s nothing like finding a target, seeing a target, lasing a target and putting rounds down range and seeing where they land,” Brown said.
The training with live ammunition also helps pilots learn more about how rounds land and how the wind can affect where they land, Brown said.
The Apache pilots operated in conjunction with AAI RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles, which allow the pilots to optimize their shots, Brown said.
“(AAI RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles) can see things we can’t see,” Brown said. “They may be able to see in the crevices of the mountains that we can’t see and they can laser designate. So it’s like having an extra pair of eyes and an extra laser … It’s like having another angle to find the enemy and shoot at them from.”
The pilots weren’t the only ones on the range, however. At the Forward Arming and Refueling Point, not far from the tower, other Soldiers assigned to the unit refueled and restocked the Apaches with ammunition.
First Lt. Scott Steggerda, leader of the distribution platoon for 3rd Sqdn., 6th Cav. Regt., said the platoon’s Soldiers received valuable experience during the gunnery.
“The main thing is the gunnery training as a whole is really important because we’re about to deploy to Afghanistan, so all these crews are going to get qualified to be more prepared for the deployment,” Steggerda said.
“For the fuelers and the ammo Soldiers, this training really exercises the systems that their (military occupational specialties) primarily serve for, fueling aircraft, running ammo mission and also running a FARP,” Steggerda said.
The training is like a real-world mission for the Soldiers, Steggerda said.
“We’re supporting this mission to make sure it actually occurs,” Steggerda said. “It’s a real-world mission in support of a training mission.”
| Date Taken: | 10.25.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2018 16:05 |
| Story ID: | 297748 |
| Location: | NEW MEXICO, US |
| Web Views: | 237 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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