Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Joshua Allmaras | A high power GPS jammer operates to provide aircraft denial of GPS capablities at the...... read more read more
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Exercise Forging Sabre takes place every other year at the Mountain Home Range Complex, and this year it was held from Sept 11-30, 2023.
“This large-scale exercise is a Singaporean national exercise that involves their fighter squadrons and helo squadrons that are based in the United States,” said Maj. Patrick Hickie, the director of operations for the 266th Range Squadron.
The 266th RANS is a geographical separated unit of the Idaho Air National Guard, operating on Mountain Home Air Force Base and Mountain Home Range Complex south of Mountain Home.
This guard unit is unique in its capabilities.
“Not only can we provide realistic training here in Idaho, but we can take our emitters all over the country and world,” said Hickie. “We are the only squadron in the Air Force that takes our equipment to train on other ranges.”
The ranges in Idaho provide a training environment that is sought out by many units, especially the Singaporeans.
“They like the airspace that the Mountain Home Range Complex provides, it’s big,” said Hickie. “They can get all the training they need done here. We have a ton of threat emitters on the range that provide a realistic density of threats. It also helps that the scheduling is easy which helps with their planning.”
Not only does this training assist the Singaporeans, it provides valuable training to the RANS Airmen.
Since combat takes place both day and night, the RANS switched its schedule to meet mission requirements. This necessitated a lot of coordination. It allowed the Airmen of the RANS the opportunity to run their equipment and provide the most realistic scenarios they could, said Hickie.
Providing threats doesn’t always just include actual threats to the aircraft, but to their onboard equipment too.
“We have been able to provide GPS jamming to the aircrews on the range,” said Master Sgt. Phiilip Mason, the 266th RANS shop chief over GPS jamming. “The aircrew uses GPS for navigation and munitions. Our equipment allows them to work through GPS denial scenarios and these issues are issues they would see in the real world. Allowing them to come up with ways to work around this and still put bombs on targets.”
Airmen don’t always get to see the impact they have, but that’s not true for the 266th RANS.
“Being able to prepare pilots allows me to see the impact of our mission,” said Daniel Falkowski, a radar technician with 266th RANS. “It’s what is being utilized overseas. They are learning the tactics on how to mitigate, negotiate and recognize high-threat environments.”
| Date Taken: | 09.27.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.30.2023 15:02 |
| Story ID: | 458825 |
| Location: | MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, IDAHO, US |
| Web Views: | 198 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Forging the Tip of the Spear, by SMSgt Joshua Allmaras, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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