PEORIA, Ill. — The Illinois Air National Guard’s 182nd Airlift Wing successfully executed a cross-country training mission, Exercise Proptoberfest, with the German Air Force from Sept. 3 to 14, 2024. The collaboration reinforced the existing alliance between the two NATO nations and further advanced joint interoperability.
The 182nd Airlift Wing’s C-130H Hercules aircraft flew with an A400M Atlas aircraft from the Bundeswehr’s Air Transport Wing 62 throughout the duration of the exercise. The team-up reflects the U.S. initiative to develop warfighting capabilities between allies by exchanging perspectives, competencies and advantages.
The exercise included four phases in four different states, including Illinois, Arizona, Colorado and California. Exercise Proptoberfest kicked off with phase one in Peoria, Illinois, with the landing of the A400M Atlas aircraft from the Bundeswehr’s Air Transport Wing 62. The German A400M flew with two 182nd Airlift Wing C-130H Hercules while in Illinois to execute formation flying before the next phases of the exercise.
Phase two of the exercise took place in Arizona and included low level awareness training, landing zone operations, dissimilar air combat training and cargo drops with instructors from the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center.
The two C-130H Hercules and the A400M then flew to Colorado for phase three, where they were met by an additional C-130H Hercules from the 182nd Airlift Wing. Phase three consisted of training on a high-density altitude mountain flying course in Colorado, which included executing landings, take offs and low approaches at a tactical landing zone.
Exercise Proptoberfest’s final phase took place in California, where two C-130H Hercules and the A400M executed personnel drops.
Exercise Proptoberfest came to be after the 182nd’s highly successful collaboration with the German Air Force in Germany’s Air Defender 23 exercise in June 2023, the largest deployment exercise of air forces in NATO's history. This initiative gave both American and German forces an opportunity to train in a diverse variety of tactical scenarios and terrains, made possible by traveling across the United States.
| Date Taken: | 10.10.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.15.2024 12:42 |
| Story ID: | 482926 |
| Location: | PEORIA, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Successful Interoperability Training in Exercise Proptoberfest, by SSgt Katherine Jacobus, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
