Photo By Senior Airman Zachary Nordheim | A U.S. Air Force explosive ordnance disposal technician steps out of his vehicle into...... read more read more
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Beginning April 2024, the 801st Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers Training Squadron explosive ordnance disposal section along with fellow U.S. Air Force EOD units stationed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and Ramstein Air Base, Germany, began developing a novel approach to the U.S. EOD’s Silver Flag curriculum in order to meet the pacing demands of Great Power Competition.
The 801st RHTS is a long-standing staple of contingency training for over 20 Air Force specialty codes and provides numerous courses such as Rapid Airfield Damage Recovery and Expeditionary Airfield Lighting System. The most well-known course, referred to as Silver Flag, offers the largest combat support training within the U.S. Air Force.
“Over the past six years, we have dramatically shifted focus from the counter-improvised explosive device mission set to one of recovering airfields, which have been denied by ordnance,” said Staff Sgt. Dean Brady, 801st RHTS EOD contingency instructor. “The reality of the situation is that not every EOD technician’s experience will be the same during the next conflict. We must have well-rounded technicians who can perform their job across the spectrum of environments during day or night.”
The capabilities and resources the 801 RHTS EOD section provides is setting the standard when it comes to developing EOD contingency training. While Andersen AFB and Ramstein AB also offer EOD training, their organizational structure is not meant to be a dedicated training mission such as the 801st RHTS stated Brady.
“What we have is an ‘uncontested’ training area at Silver Flag where we can conduct a wide variety of events,” said Tech. Sgt. Cameron Farrell, 801st RHTS EOD contingency training instructor. “Other sites are limited by fairly common infrastructure and assets, which takes away from instilling that [non-permissive conflict] mindset that we are working hard to achieve here.”
The newest redesign of the EOD Silver Flag curriculum consists of a five-day exercise that places an emphasis on field training with realistic combat scenarios, including technical training located within a classroom facility. Three and a half days of the course is comprised of EOD scenarios where Agile Combat Employment concepts are used to posture the EOD technicians. Training included collected exploitable material reporting, mitigating unmanned systems along with supporting the base and joint and partner nation’s infantry operations, day or night. Brady stated, “It’s apparent that what the 801 RHTS EOD section has developed covers the gambit of EOD operations.”
“We are setting the standard for what right looks like. There is no other formal EOD course in the Air Force that is providing this level of training,” said Tech. Sgt. Cameron Farrell, 801st RHTS EOD contingency training instructor. “It is our job to be a dedicated, professional field training exercise organization. We aim to focus our efforts into providing all participants with the most realistic training possible.”
To sustain this goal, contracted EOD flight support technicians provide administrative, technical and logistical support. This includes the gathering intelligence on current threats that are occurring daily across the globe for realistic training scenarios to ensure that technicians who attend this course receive the best possible training.
“It’s meant to be realistic,” said Brady. “The students are unaware of any dedicated downtime during the three-plus days of the training evolution. This means they must manage their time appropriately, always preparing for the unknown; whether it’s receiving a call for a routine aircraft incident or being woken up in the middle of the night because the alarm conditions changed, they don’t know when the next event is going to occur.”
Looking toward the future, the 801st RHTS EOD section aims to incorporate non-lethal ammunition during the exercise and possibly adding force-on-force training, stated Farrell. Another goal is to update all the existing equipment, aligning what the students use at the course with what they would actually operate with. Urban Warfare Training Environments, or MOUT villages, are in the works to better provide students with a more complex and tangible training environment.
“The product we have developed will evolve over time and our aim is to ensure that we capitalize on the contingency aspect of what this training site was created to address,” said Farrell. “As one of our force development managers once stated, ‘You need to be able to shoot, move, communicate and medicate, all while performing your core functions as an EOD technician.’”
| Date Taken: | 08.27.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.09.2024 16:42 |
| Story ID: | 480430 |
| Location: | TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 375 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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