Trust and confidence in air-to-ground combat focus of Atlantic Strike

  • Published
  • By Casey E. Bain and Susan Hulker
  • JFIIT, USJFCOM
AVON PARK, Fla. --  Joint and coalition warfighters improved their close air support skills during an exercise led by Air Combat Command and U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team at the Avon Park Air Ground Training Complex.

Atlantic Strike 10-02 trained warfighters to find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess both fixed and moving ground targets.

"Atlantic Strike is the quintessential air-to-ground training exercise that provides joint terminal attack controllers, joint fires observers, and aircrews with the skills they need to effectively work together to achieve both lethal and non-lethal effects on the battlefield," said Marine Corps Maj. Jabari Reneau, JFIIT's Atlantic Strike exercise director. "This training will ultimately improve our combat effectiveness while reducing the potential of fratricide and collateral damage during combat operations."

The exercise's key outcomes include its ability to foster trust, increase confidence, and help build vital relationships between key members of the air-to-ground team that will be essential to our forces' continued success today and on future battlefields, according to U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. David L. Goldfein, Director, Air and Space Operations, ACC.

"Those important relationships are being forged here just like they must be on the battlefield when you can look your comrade in the eye and know you can count on each other," he said. "That's what Atlantic Strike provides our warfighters."

More than 240 participants, CAS subject matter experts, observers, and support personnel participated in the exercise, including representatives from all four U.S. services and our coalition partners from Canada and Slovenia.

"Atlantic Strike gave us an excellent opportunity to work with the U.S. military and other partners," said Canadian Forces Capt. Jonathan Cober, instructor, CF Forward Air Control Cell from Camp Gagetown, Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada. "Our primary purpose at this exercise was the opportunity to look at the digital CAS technologies used here and to practice key air-to-ground linkages with some of our most important partners."

An added advantage of Atlantic Strike was its ability to focus on the training audience's needs, according to senior leaders at the exercise.

"One of the strengths of Atlantic Strike is it is scalable and still able to focus on specific (training) objectives," Goldfein said. "We're 100 percent focused and committed to the current fight as we keep an eye on the next threat. We know to accomplish that task we must be good joint partners, and this exercise is an example of that commitment."

The exercise improved joint air-to-ground training of Air Force and Marine Corps JTACs, Army JFO teams, the Air Support Operations Center, and aircrew by incorporating intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets along with real-time, full-motion video to replicate a realistic and stressful combat environment similar to operations in Afghanistan.

"Our primary goal was to get as many controls of live CAS aircraft as we could," said Senior Airman Benjamin Schmidt from Detachment 2, 1st Air Support Operations Squadron, Baumholder, Germany. "Atlantic Strike gave us the opportunity to work with a variety of aircraft and the entire air-to-ground kill chain just like we will in combat. This is as about as real world as it gets for us, and it will ultimately help us perform our mission downrange."

During Atlantic Strike, JTACs and JFOs trained on critical CAS tactics, techniques, and procedures during several near-real-world scenarios, including convoy operations, cordon and search, counter sniper, counter ambush, and counter improvised explosive device operations in both day and night conditions.

"For an exercise that primarily focuses on improving CAS skills for all participants, I think they've got it about right," said Army Maj. Nathaniel Edwards, fires support officer, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas. "The experience we gain by integrating our JFOs with this joint and coalition training audience will pay dividends on the battlefield where it matters most."

"One of our key challenges is to figure out how we can conduct sustainment training to maintain the certification of our Army JFOs," Edwards added. "Atlantic Strike offers a superb realistic, live training venue where we can provide our JFOs with the experience they need to hone their skills, keep them up to date on current CAS TTP, and have them better prepared to support the maneuver force during stressful combat conditions."

To enhance training, the exercise leveraged several air platforms and capabilities, including the Air Force's B-52 Stratofortress and F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Marine Corps' UH-1 Iroquois and AH-1 Cobra helicopters, and a surrogate unmanned aircraft system, to enhance the training of the entire CAS team.

"One of our goals was to provide the training audience with a variety of air assets much like they will see in theater," Maj. Reneau said. "We owe them the best training experience before they deploy, and we believe Atlantic Strike is an important part of their go-to-war training."