Photo By Tech. Sgt. Madison Scaringe | U.S. Air Force airmen from the 122nd Fighter Wing, Indiana Air National Guard perform...... read more read more
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Operating out of unfamiliar and remote locations is a cornerstone of Agile Combat Employment (ACE) for the Air Force. In alignment with ACE doctrine, two teams of Air National Guard (ANG) maintainers, from the 180th and 122nd Fighter Wings (FW), conducted F-16 Fighting Falcon Integrated Combat Turns away from home station during Northern Strike (NS) 24-2.
The 180th FW, Ohio ANG, from Toledo Air National Guard Base (ANGB), Ohio and the 122nd FW, Indiana ANG, from Fort Wayne ANGB, Ind., traveled to Northern Michigan for NS 24-2 where they generated sorties from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) and Oscoda–Wurtsmith Airport, Aug. 3-17.
“An integrated combat turn (ICT) minimizes the footprint as well as how much time the aircraft spends on the ground,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samuel Kimple, 180th Maintenance Group, ACE program manager. “The goal is to get them in, get them refueled, rearmed and then get them out as quickly as possible.”
According to Kimple, the maximum allotted time for an F-16 ICT is 45 minutes. However, both units regularly came in well under that.
“We do servicing operations concurrently,” said Kimple. “We will have [Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants] pumping fuel at the same time we are reloading the aircraft and performing maintenance checks.”
This quick turnaround time is thanks in part to the implementation of the Multi-Capable Airmen (MCA) concept. The ACE teams at NS 24-2 featured Airmen from a variety of career fields including crew chiefs, avionics, munitions, and aerospace ground equipment.
“There is no standard playbook on the configuration for an ACE team,” said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Kurt Briner, 122nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron senior enlisted leader. “Units do it differently. Our team has a diverse AFSC skill set, so they can overlap and learn each other's jobs.”
In an effort to mimic contingency locations the Air Force may utilize during ACE operations, the exercise ran a portion of operations out of Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport, a former active-duty Air Force Base that closed in 1993.
“[Oscoda] is definitely a little more barebones,” said Kimple. “We don’t have all the amenities and familiar faces that we are used to dealing with on a day-to-day basis. We have to learn who people are on the fly and understand what their jobs are and how we can help each other to get the job done.”
Briner said his unit received the F-16 mission less than a year ago, so operating across both Northern Michigan locations was highly beneficial.
“This was our first TDY experience doing ICTs away from home station,” said Briner. “It forced us to spread our teams out like an ACE environment would necessitate and allowed us to experience difficult communications and parts issues over a wider distance, so it was great training and we got a lot of lessons learned.”
Briner also cited traveling to and from the exercise on a C-5 Galaxy, with only the bare minimum as a unique learning tool.
“This helps us get in the right mindset for the future fight,” continued Briner. “Being agile, being lean and being spread out like we are simulating here is what we could face. This is giving us a taste on how to create a smaller footprint in more locations.”
While employing the ACE concepts of ICTs and MCA, both units supported one of the National Guard’s largest exercises featuring approximately 6,300 personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Special Operations Forces, and Coast Guard.
“I hope to see more units, especially in the Air National Guard, start committing to ACE,” said Briner. “Coming to exercises like this changes the way we think and how we fight.”
| Date Taken: | 08.20.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2024 13:35 |
| Story ID: | 479043 |
| Location: | ALPENA, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 797 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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