RESOLUTE, Nunavut, Canada (AFNS) —  

The New York Air National Guard’s 105th and 109th Airlift Wings partnered with Vermont Army National Guard and Canadian Armed Forces to support Exercise Guerrier Nordique, Feb. 22–March 31 in the Canadian Arctic. 

The 109th AW, Stratton Air National Guard base in Scotia, New York, deployed two LC-130 Hercules aircraft and 60 Airmen to Resolute Bay in Canada’s northern Arctic territories to act as tactical airlift support for the Canadian exercise. 

Vermont Army National Guard soldiers will be transported to Resolute Bay, Nunavut, on a C-17 Globemaster III from the 105th AW, Stewart ANG base in Newburgh, New York. From there, teams will forward-deploy to establish remote camps. 

The LC-130H is the largest ski-equipped aircraft in the world, capable of landing on ice and snow in polar environments. As the only unit to fly the LC-130H, the 109th AW provides support to scientific research stations in Antarctica and Greenland.

Among the 109th deployers are the 109th’s Polar Camp Skiway Team — personnel trained to establish a remote camp in extreme cold — and build a ski landing area supporting the unit’s LC-130H aircraft. The PCST used specially equipped snowmobiles to lay out the landing zone for the larger American LC-130Hs.

The team works with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 440 Squadron, which flies the Twin Otter ski-equipped aircraft to establish ski landing areas.

In the past, Guerrier Nordique has operated as a training exercise for emergency response and domestic operations in extreme weather in Northern Canada.

The Vermont Army National Guard, which includes a mountain warfare battalion, has participated in the exercise since 2012.

This year, the Guerrier Nordique exercise focuses on combat capability and lethality in temperatures that stay below zero all day during the training period.

“While elements of the Vermont Guard and Canadian Armed forces will be conducting training, the role of the 109th AW is as a real-world tactical airlift,” said Chief Master Sgt. Ron Jemmott, the senior enlisted leader for the wing’s maintenance squadron and a member of the PCST.

“Our job is to establish the ski landing area as a lifeline for the guys out there training,” Jemmott said.

Once established, the remote camp and ski landing area will provide multi-national ground forces with tactical support via the 109th’s LC-130Hs.

This can include flying supplies and personnel to and from the exercise site and aeromedical evacuation if needed, Jemmot said.

“The exercise will culminate in a mock overland assault of an airfield 100 miles away, wherein Canadian and American soldiers will utilize snow machines and vehicles — capable of traversing the arctic terrain — to travel, assault and secure the airfield,” said Lt. Col. Matt Sala, a pilot with the 109th AW and officer in charge of the PCST during Guerrier Nordique.

“Our job is to use skills we have built over years of operating in the Arctic and Antarctic to provide the real-world tactical support to enable citizen-soldiers from Canada and the U.S. to develop similar abilities through exercising their role in possible arctic combat operations,” Sala said.

Canadian Armed Forces and Vermont Army National Guard personnel will deploy to the exercise area, establish their own remote camp and train in arctic combat and survival techniques.

“Exercises like this illustrate the growing strategic importance of developing American and allied capabilities in the Arctic as interest in the region is scaling up around the world,” Jemmott said.

“When adversaries like China and Russia are beginning to operate more often there, it is time for us to work with allies and other agencies to increase our individual capabilities as well as our interoperability so we can compete in the future,” Jemmott said.

By SSgt Madison Scaringe and MSgt Jamie Spaulding, New York National Guard

WASHINGTON (AFNS) —  

The Department of the Air Force 2023 Vice Chief’s Challenge begins Feb. 21. Its goal is to find innovative responses to challenges affecting Agile Combat Employment.

ACE is designed to increase survivability while generating combat power in geographically dispersed locations. Announced last year, ACE intends to be both proactive and reactive in addressing threats.

Airmen can submit their ideas here. Submissions are due between Feb. 21–May 22.

“We have heard the call to Accelerate Change or Lose from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr.; he has set the vision for the force we need to become. Through the Operational Imperatives, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall has refined our focus on delivering threat-informed capabilities that the force needs to prevail,” said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin. “The changing character of war will privilege lethality, speed, agility, and resilience – acceleration matters.”

This year’s challenge focuses on two key areas:

Rapidly transitioning to a wartime footing and delivering combat power to the point of need at the speed of relevance

Operating in a highly contested environment consistent with the concept of ACE

Operationalizing ACE aids four areas: codifying repeatable and understandable processes; forces that are suitably organized, trained, and equipped; theaters that are postured with the appropriate equipment, assets, and host nation agreements; and joint service and partner nation integration and interoperability.

Idea selection will be based on which have the broadest appeal and highest probability of delivering impacts toward designing, improving, and employing ACE.

“The imagination and creativity resident in our Airmen is vital,” Allvin said. “Airmen are our critical advantage. Airmen have the ideas and ingenuity required to help us accelerate and fly, fight and win…airpower, anytime, anywhere.”

Airmen whose ideas move forward in the Vice Chief’s Challenge will be paired with innovators from across the force, to include key players on the Air Force headquarters staff who advocate to adopt similar concepts. Morpheus innovation team will take 6 to 12 promising ideas and directly shepherd Airmen and ideas through the innovation adoption process.

A Platform One account is required to participate in the Vice Chief’s Challenge. Instructions can be found here.

For additional support available by email, visit here.

To learn more about the Vice Chief’s Challenge visit here.

By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) —  

The 805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as the Shadow Operations Center-Nellis, recently hosted its second annual ShOC Flag event at Nellis Air Force Base. The event’s primary purpose was to analyze decision-making in a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command scenario to gather insights into operational and tactical command and control processes.

“The Air Force has identified some pretty significant command and control challenges when we apply our current way of doing business in a scenario versus a peer adversary,” said Col. Aaron Gibney, 505th Combat Training Group commander. “To get after these gaps, the ShOC-N has established an environment where we measure old way versus new way, old toy versus new toy, and start accelerating our ability to C2 the war—during deliberate planning and dynamic execution. These insights will inform future requirements and acquisition strategies, as well as our approach to tactics and training.”

The 805th CTS pitted current warfighter systems and procedures against new technologies to gather insights and streamline operational and tactical C2 processes to speed up the kill chain and decision-making timeline. The objective of ShOC Flag was to gather warfighter feedback and stakeholder involvement while showcasing key technologies ready for rapid acquisition decisions, accelerating the planning cycle, providing information superiority and decision advantage, and compressing the decision-making timeline.

These experimental efforts, along with showcasing developing technology on the horizon for the warfighter and the lessons learned from ShOC Flag, have contributed to proofing the current capabilities of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System Battle Lab to instrument data to the Joint All Domain Command and Control ability, compress C2 planning, and execution to accelerate decision-making across the kill chain.

Planning for the event began over six months ago with collaboration between the 805th CTS, Secretary of the Air Force’s Studies and Analysis team, Headquarters Air Force ABMS Cross-Functional team, Rapid Capabilities Office, Air Combat Command, Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, 505th Command and Control Wing and industry partners.

With stakeholder’s objectives in mind, the 805th CTS built a three-day, three-scenario experiment intended to satisfy all stakeholders and provide warfighters with the opportunity to work through very complex and dynamic targeting processes against peer adversaries.

During the experiment, the ABMS team, in partnership with the SecAF’s Studies and Analysis team, conducted a ground-breaking battle management experiment which will allow the Air Force to identify credible capability improvements. This foundational event was a success and set in motion a repeatable process for discerning requirements aimed at SecAF Frank Kendall’s Operational Imperatives.

Separately, the PACAF and ACC teams were using the experiment to learn about capabilities advertised as ready for operations, one of which was the Tactical Operations Center prototypes using a joint long-range fires scenario.

Participants used constructive modeling and simulation data to simultaneously utilize current and future technologies in a simulated deployed combat environment. The event also created an opportunity for the tactical air control party Agile Control Integration Team, or ACIT, to demonstrate its capability as a mobile C2 platform.

ShOC Flag also allowed industry partners to showcase their technology by enabling the warfighter to have hands-on use and provide direct feedback to mission partners.

“This level of feedback is critical in ensuring next-generation technologies meet the needs of the warfighter,” said Lt. Col. John Ohlund, 805th CTS commander.

A member of the ABMS CFT stated this event is the only one all year where you have this many levels of command and different C2 communities come together to have these kinds of important conversations.

In 2023, ShOC Flag events will be renamed ShOC Capstone events as the event’s emphasis shifts from advanced training to the culmination of experimentation events. The next capstone event, scheduled for December 2023, will result from the 805th CTS continuing to construct and execute smaller instrumentation experiments throughout the year.

By 505th Command and Control Wing Public Affairs