Atlantic Strike VII - Show Of Force - Day 1
It was musty and humid after the rains stopped. But we drove on anyways down that narrow dirt road headed towards some small town. Nothing but bush and trees as far as the eye could see. Nothing except the Humvee in front of us; just watching the rocks and dirt being kicked up. But we were almost there. All of a sudden, to our right a loud explosion. An Improvised explosive device (IED) went off and took out the lead Humvee in our convoy. Immediately the Army soldiers jumped out and took up defensive positions as mortar shells were raining down on the convoy.
No, we weren’t overseas in some Middle East war zone, but rather in the middle of Atlantic Strike VII at the Avon Park Air Ground Training Complex in central Florida. An exercise created by the Tactical Air Control Party (or TACP) community to provide real world scenarios to Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (or JTACs) before they head overseas for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Just an hour before this simulated battle at the NorthTac (North Tactical) Range; just one of dozens that encompasses the 106,000 acres of Avon Park, the Blue Force (or “good guys”) comprising of more then 800 personnel from the US Air Force, Army, Marines, Denmark, and Canada representing the Coalition forces, formulated their plans of attack.
Atlantic Strike consists of four different scenarios. An Urban, Convoy, “Live-Fire” and “Force on Force” scenario. I had a chance to spend the day observing the “Force on Force” scenario at NorthTac with 5 of the military units Monday and tomorrow. “Force on Force” is exactly as it sounds–a platoon of Soldiers enter a hostile village and rely on aircraft (air strikes called in by the Air Force JTAC embedded in their units) to stop various enemy threats they encounter. With three different missions planned for the day, we had 10 hours of total mission time. Each scenario is a mission centered around the JTAC and is designed to show these air power specialists realistic combat situations. Three types of situations I was able to observe today were:
Rescuing of a Prisoner of War
Cordon and Search (to seal off an area and look around)
Locate and Capture of a High Value Target
Each “go” (or training “lane”) began with a full briefing with the mission commander going over the platoon’s objectives, plan of route and updated intelligence on the target village. Then the teams manned their Humvee and began the two-mile trek into the simulated hostile territory.
As the Humvee rolled along the dirt road, they were not alone. The main assets of the JTAC is dedicated air cover above….for today’s mission the platoon was supported by A-10C Warthogs, armed with the latest targeting pods and communications equipment. Atlantic Strike gives the JTAC a combination of the latest technology (TACP-CASS and MOVER3, the latest iteration in the ROVER System), aircraft and peer-led training to prepare them for what they’ll soon face in combat. Throughout the week, JTACs will talk to A-10’s, HH-60’s, AC-130’s, B-52’s, and UAV’s. Each modified with enhanced video pods and cameras able to guide the convoy away from enemy threats, relay valuable information to/from the JTAC’s, and engage targets as needed.
Air assets, such as the A-10 were used to simulate dropped bombs and an occasional “Show of Force”, a low pass meant to intimidate and scare the enemy. But in the end, it was still the ground forces that were needed to accomplish the mission. Good guys versus the bad ones. Men and women alike.
As the Soldiers went through the mock town, they encountered IED’s, snipers, trip wires and ambushes planted by the hostile forces. And after they dealt those obstacles, they still had to overcome the Opposition Forces (or “bad guys”); trained JTAC’s who have have recently returned from Afghanistan and Iraq and applied lessons learned from their combat experience.
If a Soldier from either side is “killed”, they are treated as such until they “regenerate” and are allowed to participate in the mission. But OpFor will gun for them stronger and harder on each subsequent mission.
As the platoon negotiated the training they would pause and call in air strikes. JTAC’s coordinated with aircraft such as the A-10 or UAV’s overhead to “look behind buildings”, neutralize hostiles, or gather intelligence. Tomorrow I’m scheduled to see some of the technology used by these aircraft to help the Soldiers and JTAC’s on the ground.
