by Casey Bain

Naval Air Station, Fallon, Nev., Jun. 23, 2008—U.S. Navy Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8), U.S. Air Force surveillance and electronic warfare aircraft, and an Army Patriot battalion are working closely together to defeat a three-dimensional irregular warfare threat over the snow-capped mountains in the northern Nevada desert. The purpose of the largest joint integrated training event (ITE) here in years is to help prepare units for the rigors of combat, according to officials at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC).

     “Air Wing Fallon (AWF) provides our forces with a realistic and dynamic training opportunity that replicates the way we fight in theater,” said Rear Adm. Mark Emerson, commander, NSAWC.  “We provide end-to-end training for the forces that train here.  This current exercise is a culmination of almost six-years of planning, coordination, and hard work. We believe it provides a unique joint training environment for the entire carrier air wing including joint terminal attack controllers, Special Operations Forces, Air Force command and control and electronic warfare aircraft, and an Army Patriot battalion so they can learn how to work together here exactly like they will in combat.”

     This AWF ITE incorporates a variety of missions that test the participants’ abilities to work together as a well-synchronized joint warfighting team.  Mission types include air warfare, joint suppression of enemy air defenses, joint close air support, theater air and missile defense, and combat search and rescue.

     “The training event here at Fallon provides a great opportunity to conduct superb joint training,” said Army Maj. Gen. Howard Bromberg, commanding general, U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Center at Fort  Bliss, Texas.  “Seldom have we been presented with the opportunity to train as part of this type of joint integrated team with live air and command and control assets.”

	A Navy F/A-18 Hornet from Carrier Air Wing Eight conducts joint close air support training as part of the Air Wing Fallon Integrated Training Event.  (Photo by: Casey Bain, JFIIT)

     Helping to support this joint integrated training environment is U.S. Joint Forces Command’s (USJFCOM) Joint Warfighting Center (JWFC) and the Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team (JFIIT).  “AWF is a great example of how an existing traditional service-level training program can be enhanced to conduct robust training that integrates other participants and services not normally found in a carrier air wing rotation,” said Michelle Lewis, JWFC program coordinator for AWF ITE.  "The real and distinct value of this ITE will be the synergy in training value created by enabling CVW-8, Army Patriot and other joint forces to train together in an increasingly complex and demanding environment that will maximize joint training and lessons learned that units can leverage today and in future rotations."

     NSAWC provides a comprehensive training environment that incorporates 11,000 square miles of training ranges, a supersonic air corridor, and an instrumentation capability that can electronically track, record and play back every training mission.         “This venue is ripe with opportunity to exercise and stress the joint fires aspect of our mission,” said Army Lt. Col. Nick Bernhardt, commander, 2-1 Air Defense Artillery from Fort. Hood, Texas.  “This environment provides us with an incredible opportunity to train with all our equipment that we need to be proficient with to support the joint fight.  We can train on every major task within our mission essential task list here—something that we can’t do back at home station.  The ability to receive truth-based, joint focused after-action reviews are priceless to our leaders and soldiers.  Everything we do here is warfighter focused and that helps to prepare our entire team for the challenges that lie ahead.”

      The AWF ITE continues through Jun. 27.

Casey Bain is assigned to the  Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.