This past week the skies around Savannah, GA have roared to the sound of freedom, as the Air National Guard’s premier counter aerial combat training exercise ‘Sentry Savannah’ got underway. For 2 weeks Air Force fighter pilots and their crews are putting their skills & knowledge into action, integrating tactics and training together in air to air combat, offensive / defensive counter air missions, cruise missile defense and dropping weapons on the range.
It’s the Guard’s largest air-to-air, joint aerial combat exercise, and their premier counter air exercise for 4th and 5th generation fighters to showcase America’s combat aircraft readiness.
Over 1,300 men and women from 9 active duty and reservist units nationwide are participating, supporting a force of over 60 aircraft for the exercise which is held at the Air Dominance Center, Savannah Air National Guard Base, Georgia; one of four Combat Readiness Training Centers in the country.
“Sentry Savannah has fantastic training airspace, and is a center of gravity to bring other assets in to fly dissimilar training with us to train our students and sharpen our instructor skills,” said Lt Col Will ‘Steal’ Barksdale, commander of the 43rd Fighter Squadron from Tyndall AFB, FL, which is the only unit in the USAF responsible for formally training F-22 Raptor pilots and crews. “Without going to a place like this, we wouldn’t have an opportunity to train against that many different assets.”
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Large exercises like Sentry Savannah give new pilots an opportunity to fly in a different airspace and environment, going somewhere new to figure out how they will execute the mission in a place they’ve never been before. Students become familiar with assets and capabilities they might have in potential future combat situations, getting tremendous exposure to the dissimilar combat training world against platforms they don’t typically see in typical training.
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Tyndall also sent T-38 jet trainers, and Raptor crews from other units are participating as well, along with various F-16 and F-35 squadrons. KC-135 and KC-46 aerial refuelers are also supporting.
F-117 Also Made An Appearance
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There was one plane that appeared which stood out at the field. That is the legendary F-117 Nighthawk.
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The iconic stealth jet was retired from service back in 2008 officially, but has been spotted numerous times flying in southern Nevada and California over recent years and appeared at Savannah this week.
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“When you look at 117s that come and land, they’re a stealth platform right? Early days of stealth, but they are still a stealthy platform. So, they can simulate things like cruise missiles that we could actually face,” said Lieutenant-General Michael Loh, who is the Director of the Air National Guard, speaking at the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyberspace Conference last year. “So are they a perfect platform for a cruise missile defense exercise? Absolutely.”
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The most recent public sighting of the Nighthawk occurred last year at the California ANG in Fresno, where the 144th Fighter Wing confirmed that the F-117 was supporting training with their F-15s. The commander of the Wing said during that exercise that “the training against integrated forces that include the F-117 will challenge and sharpen pilots, as well as build confidence in tactics and systems needed to defend our nation.”
The jet in Savannah this week also sported a 40th anniversary insignia on its tails, and had numerous bomb markings painted under the canopy from its prior combat service history.
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Train Like You Fight
Realistic exercises and advanced training tools like augmented reality are important to prepare warfighters for anything that comes their way, particularly with more advanced emerging threats like the J-20 (China) and SU-50 (Russia).
“If we do not innovate we are going to lose, period,” says Col Randel “Laz” Gordon, Vice Commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, CA.
“We are faced with an opposition that has superior numbers and technology that is at least on par with ours, and if we’re not scared of that we should be,” says Dan Robinson, a former F-22 pilot and CEO of defense contractor Red 6, who is developing a revolutionary Augmented Reality system to integrate with pilots and their aircraft for aerial combat training.
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