Photo By Alexander Rector | A U.S. Air Force Airman assigned to the 20th Air Support Operations Squadron, fires a...... read more read more
WATERTOWN, NY - New York Air National Guard Airmen assigned to the 174th Attack Wing facilitated a two-week bi-national training exercise at Fort Drum, NY, Nov. 4-15, 2024.
The training, dubbed Exercise Hungry Horse, saw active duty and Air National Guard joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) training together with Canadian JTACs at the Adirondack air-to-ground gunnery range at Fort Drum, NY.
JTACs are highly trained members of the U.S. Air Force’s special operations community and support ground forces by requesting, controlling, and adjusting surface-to-surface fires; providing targeting information in support of close air support; and performing terminal guidance operations.
The 174th Attack Wing, headquartered in Syracuse, NY, operates the range and provided the venue for the exercise.
Also known as range 48, the Adirondack air-to-ground gunnery range is highly sought after by many units due to its size and remote location. It is one of the only ranges on the East Coast that is capable of handling high explosive munitions.
During the two-week exercise, Canadian service members trained with Airmen from the 20th Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS), an active-duty squadron that supports the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and the 274th ASOS, a subordinate unit of the New York Air National Guard’s 107th Attack Wing.
“The most beneficial part of training at the Adirondack Range is the flexibility of the range itself, which offers numerous observation posts to use with dry, live and inert weapons from dissimilar assets and can also accommodate the conduct of full mission profiles in a mobile scenario,” said Capt. Zachary Tuttle, the JTAC troop commander, 2nd Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, Canadian Armed Forces. “This exercise and experience has been outstanding.”
During the exercise, the range oversaw more than 60 sorties from multiple airframes and supported the training of more than 300 personnel.
While training at the range, the Canadian JTACs focused on key qualification upgrades to maintain their operational readiness. JTACs from both countries worked alongside each other to coordinate air-to-ground fire missions and hone their small arms tactics during live-fire training scenarios.
By conducting a bi-national training event, the U.S. Airmen and Canadian JTACs successfully shared their maneuver experience regarding team tactics and standard operating procedures.
“The nature of being a JTAC is sharing common standard operating procedures, tactics and techniques amongst US and NATO allies, which makes integrating within different allies a key strength of JTACs,” said Tuttle. “It is important to learn alongside international allies and partners as it ultimately builds stronger JTACs that can go back to their respective units, better able to support them during their training and deployments.”
Going forward, the Canadians plan to host a contingent of American JTACs in Quebec for a future training event.
“All participating units have put forward unparalleled work ethic to achieve such incredible goals for this exercise,” said Tuttle. “I truly thank the 20th ASOS and the Adirondack Range staff for being such gracious hosts and will always look forward to working with them in the future.”
The 174th Attack Wing is headquartered at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, NY, and is one of 5 wings that make up the New York Air National Guard. The wing's primary mission is to operate the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft.
| Date Taken: | 11.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2024 12:28 |
| Story ID: | 486090 |
| Location: | WATERTOWN, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 549 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 174th Attack Wing Supports Bi-National Training Exercise at Fort Drum, NY, by Alexander Rector, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
