Combined U.S.-Australian exercise showcases air mobility readiness, power

Published July 25, 2011
By Maj. Michael Meridith
18th Air Force

SCOTT AFB, IL -- Airmen and aircraft belonging to the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, recently demonstrated the nation's ability to rapidly project power across the globe, delivering 245 U.S. and Australian paratroopers to their drop zone July 16 as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2011.

The U.S. Pacific Command-led command post and field-training exercise, which began July 11 and lasts through July 29, is intended to enhance combined operations between U.S. and Australian forces as well as demonstrate U.S. resolve to support a key regional ally.

"By exercising together we will increase interoperability, flexibility and readiness which will help us maintain peace and stability in the Pacific," said U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Scott Van Buskirk, the Combined Joint Task Force Commander, according to a July 11 U.S. Pacific Command news story about the exercise.

Talisman Sabre 2011 involves more than 22,000 military personnel training in both Australia and the United States. Mobility Air Forces have played a crucial role in the ongoing exercise, with five C-17 Globemaster IIIs and five KC-135 Stratotankers supporting the massive airdrop over the Shoalwater Training Area, Queensland, Australia.

The C-17s and crews were deployed from the 437th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., the 62nd Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash, and the 535th Airlift Squadron at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. The five Stratotankers and crews were already forward-deployed from the 141st Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild AFB, Wash., and the 909th Air Refueling Squadron, Kadena Air Base, Japan, to Andersen Air Base, Guam, to support Pacific Command's theater security initiatives and continuous bomber presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Upon departing their home stations, the C-17s travelled to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, where they picked up soldiers from the Army's 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team and 6th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade and seven Australian jumpmasters from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. After an 18-hour flight including one aerial refueling, the joint force finally arrived in Australia airspace for execution of the mission.

The exercise represented the culmination of weeks of planning by mobility experts around the globe, and brought together command and control personnel from the Air Mobility Division of Pacific Air Forces' 613th Air and Space Operations Center as well as planners from AMC, the 18th Air Force, and the 618th Air and Space Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center) here. Rich Richardson, Senior Director of Operations, 618th AOC (TACC), noted that the complexity of Talisman Sabre meant that "close coordination" between all parties, including Australian forces was critical to mission success.

"This combined exercise proved that despite the intricacies involved, we were able to prepare and train for a battalion-size airdrop anytime, anywhere," Richardson said.
In addition to command and control and planning efforts, execution of the mission also required multiple diplomatic clearances, precise coordination with many different air traffic control centers, restrictions on crew flight duty periods, and weather. According to Lt. Col. Michael Mitchell, the Charleston-based AMC mission commander, good communication was the key to successful mission execution.

"You have to open the lines of communication and keep them open," Mitchell said. "There are many entities that play a part in an exercise of this nature, and you have to have strong relationships with all of them. The exercises we perform regularly through DoD are very important in building those relationships so that when contingencies happen you can trust that the job will get done."

Mitchell added that in the case of Talisman Sabre, "getting the job done" meant demonstrating the nation's ability to conduct long-range strategic airdrop and "showing we can take any airborne unit and put them on an objective anywhere in the world."

Those sentiments were echoed by Tom Rogers, an 18th Air Force planner, and one of the architects of AMC's involvement in Talisman Sabre. "What it showed was that despite intense demands worldwide, we still have the ability to respond anywhere across the globe when needed. It proved that even when there are no airfields, we still have to ability to rapidly insert forces for the mission, whether in support of contingency operations or humanitarian relief efforts," he said.