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Senior Airman Matthew Smith, joint terminal attack controller, 2nd Air Support Operations Squadron, coordinates close air support with an overhead French Mirage 2000D during an exercise in Corsica, France.
Members of the 4th Air Support Operations Group participated in a combined close air support exercise, known as SerpentEx, Dec. 1 to 13 in Corsica, France, hosted by the French air force.
The exercise focused on testing air-land integration elements including close air support aircrews, forward air controllers and joint terminal attack controllers.
JTACs are highly skilled specialists imbedded with Army and Marine combat units and are trained to coordinate with the ground unit’s commander to properly call in air and artillery strikes during ground-based combat operations.
“The over arching theme of the exercise was counter insurgency operations, which mirrors current missions we are involved in,” said Staff Sgt. Stephen Thomas, 2nd Air Support Operations Squadron JTAC instructor.
Nine allied nations, along with 27 CAS-capable fighter aircraft and 32 terminal attack controller teams took part in the exercise. This coalition exercise gave the 435th AGOW service members the unique opportunity to train alongside many different nations.
“It’s interesting and impressive working alongside so many allied nations,” Thomas said. “This exercise allowed us to broaden our close air support execution perspective through combined mission planning and execution. It was impressive because besides the Canadian, United Kingdom and U.S. forces, the other participants conducted the entire exercise in English.
“The FAC and JTAC community is relatively small and international exercises like this one provide a great opportunity to build partnerships in a training environment,” he added. “Chances are we will work with each other again downrange in an allied conflict response.”
Not only did Ramstein’s 435th AGOW support the exercise with JTACs, but the exercise also provided intelligence personnel with an invaluable opportunity to build partnerships with combined forces members as well.
“I learned a lot about the coordination that is completed between the Air Support Operation Center, aircrews and JTACs and FACs on the ground,” said Staff Sgt. Hailey Sundberg, 2nd ASOS procedural controller. “The best part was integrating with the UK ASOC and learning from their experienced crew members, as well as the French and Canadian members on the team. Our counterparts played a vital role in the exercise and helped us broaden our current techniques, tactics and procedures.”
The 4th ASOG has participated in SerpentEx since 2009, learning many lessons along the way.
“As far as intelligence and close air support training goes, SerpentEx is regarded as a top notch exercise in the European Theater,” said Capt. Sarah Fortin, 4th ASOG chief of operations and air liaison officer. “As long as we are allocated funding to maintain the control currencies of our JTACs, participating in SerpentEx should definitely remain a high priority, especially considering the complexity of its joint close air support training objectives and invaluable lessons learned.”
