C-130J crews from the active duty US Air Force, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve Command, the Italian Air Force, and the Royal Australian Air Force headed to England last April for the first-ever multinational exercise exclusively for C-130J
The exercise, called Combined Strength, was hosted by the two Royal Air Force C-130J squadrons at RAF Lyneham, England. Some C-130J operators, including the US Coast Guard and the Royal Danish Air Force, sent observers. All but one worldwide C-130J operator either participated with an aircraft and crew or sent observers to the exercise. The US Marine Corps was unable to attend in order to prepare for its upcoming operational deployment with the KC-130J tanker.
Operators
Combined Strength involved symposia, a flying program, and an airlift competition on the last day. The exercise coincided with two regularly scheduled meetings — the C-130J operations working group and the International J Maintenance User's Group. The operations working group is a joint steering committee that includes senior pilots and members of the command staffs from each of the C-130J operators. The IJMUG is the maintenance organization counterpart to the operations working group. The two meetings, held separately, allow the operators and maintainers from each of the units to gather in one location to highlight recent operations, discuss issues common to all and use the collective brainpower to develop a means to resolve any problems, and serve as a general lessons learned session.
"We had often discussed doing something like a Combined Strength exercise when we worked and trained with other units," notes Squadron Leader Phil Atkinson, the director of the exercise. "Historically, Hercs operate multinationally. British C-130 crews worked with the Australian crews in East Timor, for example. "We need to make sure we can integrate with other operators, and they with us. Getting operators together on an annual basis should improve future joint operations. Furthermore, the timing was right to bring everyone together since C-130J units worldwide have reached a certain level of capability to operate tactically."
Learning To Fly Together
The flying program at Combined Strength served two main purposes for the participants: to see and learn firsthand how other C-130J units fly their aircraft and to fly in formation with unfamiliar groups. "This exercise provides an opportunity to look at maintenance, operations, and logistics," says Lt. Col. Greg Jones, the team chief for the 146th Airlift Wing at Channel Islands ANGS, California. "We must plan our own maintenance support when we deploy since the J models are still relatively few in number. We need to get experience operating with the British, Australians, and the Italians."
The exercise opened with a mandatory mass crew briefing to go over local area flying rules, how to coordinate with British air traffic control, low-level flight rules, and other basics. "Many of these crews have never flown together and many have never flown in the UK," says Atkinson. "Flying safely is of primary importance. Flying in England is tough in itself, and we are adding formation flying. For this first gathering, we would rather have a basic exercise and competition that goes well than a highly technical one that doesn't."
After the mass briefing, the crews adjourned to the building shared by 24 and 30 squadrons, the RAF's two C-130J units, for mission planning. Unlike the once-typical scene of a mountain of paper maps, plotting boards, and crew members drawing routes, all of the C-130J crews carried laptop computers.
"The RAF uses a different mission planning system than the one we use," notes Jones. "We have to use the mission planning system that most platforms in the Air Force use, and we have to use a separate program to put data in the aircraft. The two systems are not integrated. The RAF system simplifies planning since the mission planning data goes right into the aircraft via the data transfer card."
The first day of the exercise, Squadron Leader Dave Cranstoun, one of the RAF's tactics experts, gave several demonstrations of JAMPA, short for J Advanced Mission Planning Aid. By the end of the week, seven of the eight teams were using this computer-based system to plan their flights.
JAMPA emulates the communications, navigation, and identification function of the C-130J's computers. The system is derived from the RAF's Harrier and Tornado Advanced Mission Planning Aid. With just a few keystrokes, the program figures computer-aided release points for airdrops, includes data on landing zones, and calculates refueling points. It can plan a mission for up to twenty aircraft for which it can determine splits and rejoins and can deconflict routes. It even calculates joker and bingo fuel.
"We download information to the data transfer cartridge and then upload it to the aircraft," notes Cranstoun. "All we need for a mission is a couple of charts and the DTC and life should be good."
The first flights of the week were single-ship familiarization flights over the low-level route and practice landings at Keevil, an auxiliary field near Lyneham that was used as a glider assembly point during World War II. Each flight carried an RAF observer for safety as well as observers from the other teams.
"Out flying, we can see how other air forces operate their C-130Js," notes Flight Lt. Michael Crooks, the chief of the Royal Australian Air Force team. "Reading a pile of standard procedures can give us an idea, but seeing these procedures in action makes a big difference. We are getting upgraded countermeasures in our aircraft soon because we are going into Iraq in a couple of months. Talking to an RAF pilot who has been there and used these systems benefits us greatly."
"The flights we are executing here are building blocks," says Atkinson. "First, we have to hit a target on time, accurately. That is relatively simple. We work up to formation flights and tactical landings during the exercise." Attesting to the success of this incremental approach, two flights of two teams and one three-ship formation took off together on the last day of the exercise.
Last Day Rodeo
The events for the competition on the last day of the exercise, the first-ever C-130J rodeo, were confined to basic airlift operations since each of the competing units had achieved different levels of experience with their aircraft. The teams flew a low-level navigation route and air-dropped either a small bundle or a container delivery system load for accuracy, flew to Keevil, and finished with a spot landing, an important skill in delivering supplies to very small, confined landing strips in combat areas.
"The competition is based on airdrop accuracy," says Squadron Leader Simon Brewis, the competition's chief umpire. "Even though the spot landings are pretty much pure piloting skill, they are just as important. We deal with limited strip lengths around the world in combat situations. Here, they practice in a benign environment and can work on getting it right."
Like golf, the lowest score wins the competition. Although the Australians made an average landing, their airdrop was very close to the bull's-eye in the drop zone, and that allowed the RAAF to claim the trophy. Second place went to the 815th Airlift Squadron, an Air Force Reserve Command unit from Keesler AFB, Mississippi. Third place went to the 314th AW, the Air Education and Training Command unit from Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, which had only received its first assigned C-130J a few weeks before the exercise. The crew from the 46th Air Brigade at Pisa, Italy, touched down only two feet from the white line during the spot landing competition and finished fourth overall. The two US Air National Guard units, the 146th AW and the 143rd AW from Providence, Rhode Island, finished sixth and seventh, respectively. The two RAF host units finished fifth and eighth.
"Next year, the baseline skill level at tactical low-level flight will be a lot higher," predicts Squadron Leader Mike Wilson, the chief of flying operations for the exercise. "We will change the procedures to match those improved skills. We will also be flying the new Block 5.4 software. Combined Strength will become a more technical tactical meet."
Lt. Cmdr. Tom McDonald, one of the US Coast Guard observers who flys the HC-130J from CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina, summed up the exercise. "We got a lot out of being here. The drop procedures we saw certainly apply to what we do. We got our first experience in flying on the night vision goggles, which is something we will be doing, in the sim. We shared a lot of valuable information. The Italians, for example, have an automated search and rescue drop mode that could be very useful for us. JAMPA would be valuable. This was a great opportunity for us."
"The competition at Exercise Combined Strength was a fun add-on and now we've got bragging rights," adds Crooks, whose team won the competition. "The primary reason we were here, though, was to get to know the other J operators, fly with them, and learn from them. From that perspective, the exercise was a huge success."
Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.
