US Pacific Command Will Oversee 146 Military Exercises This Year to Build Relationships and Hone Combat Readiness
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Sharpening the Spear USAF photo by SSgt. Lakisha A. Croley By Richard Halloran US Pacific Command will oversee 146 military exercises this year to build relationships and hone combat readiness. 72 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 2011 ar more than any other mili- tary force in the Asia-Pacific region, US Pacific Com- mand trains airmen, soldiers, Fsailors, and marines in an extensive array of exercises intended to give them an advantage over likely adversaries—and thus deter potential enemies. USAF photo TSgt.by Shane CuomoA. Some of the 146 exercises on PA- COM’s schedule for Fiscal 2011 are those of a single service; more focus on joint training. Others are bilateral, where the US seeks to build trust and confidence in the forces of another nation. Still others are multilateral coalition-building efforts. Among the newer type of exercises is training for humanitarian operations. Cobra Gold is representative. In the spring, all four US services are sched- uled to head to Thailand to take part in Cobra Gold alongside Thai forces and those of Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia, with a total Left: An F-15 is refueled during December’s Keen Sword exercise at Kadena AB, of 11,000 participants. The US Army Japan. Above: USAF, Thai Air Force, and Singapore Air Force members track a and Marine Corps alternate each year “downed” aircraft during a Cobra Gold exercise. Below: Photographers snap a C-17 Globemaster III during 2010’s RIMPAC exercise. PACOM participates in the most as the US ground element, with the exercises of any military force in the region. All focus on the unique challenges of Marine Corps playing the role this the Pacific theater. USAF photo by TSgt. Matthew McGovern AIR FORCE Magazine / February 2011 73 year. In its 30th year, Cobra Gold is declined to disclose when this effort sea, and land tactical units. It takes one of the longest running multilateral would take place or what other nation place across the Joint Pacific Alaska exercises, a three-week drill with an is involved. Range Complex, Joint Base Elmendorf, array of command post, field training, Eielson Air Force Base, and the Gulf and humanitarian challenges. Developing Military Relations of Alaska. An educated guess says the In conjunction with Cobra Gold, the In recent years, PACOM has put exercise trains airmen to help defend Marine Corps will conduct exercise increasing emphasis on training for South Korea from North Korea. Freedom Banner in which two ships humanitarian assistance and disaster When US forces get into bilateral from the maritime pre-position force relief, which some critics contend de- and multilateral exercises, the training will sail to Thailand to offload weap- tracts from military readiness. “Not at assumes a new dimension. The objec- ons, equipment, and supplies. They all,” Ball responded. “Combat readiness tive is to develop military-to-military will then reload the ships, as getting means being able to execute missions relations that help deter a potential the sequence right takes training. The across the range of military options. aggressor. In the worst case, the drills gear urgently needed has to go in last We can move a lot of food, water, and help to forge a coalition ready to go to so it can come off first. shelters in a short time. We can bring in war in combined operations. Just how In contrast to Cobra Gold, this spring’s hospital capabilities, and we can bring effective the exercises are in deterring Terminal Fury exercise will be for US in water purification units. We must be a potential aggressor is impossible to forces only. PACOM headquarters in prepared to answer the call not only know. China has occasionally been in- Honolulu will turn into a combat com- to assist allies and friends but to help vited to send observers to an exercise, mand post for Adm. Robert F. Willard anybody in distress.” but their reactions have so far been and staff to practice executing a large- Overall, these military exercises cost difficult to read. scale operations plan. relatively little. PACOM’s 2011 budget Some PACOM exercises are long Marine Col. Javier Ball, chief of PA- is $140 million, out of a national defense standing. Commando Sling is a tactical COM’s exercise division, said, “Leaders budget of slightly more than $700 bil- fighter exercise in which USAF sends at all levels are involved in all phases of lion. Each of the components, such as six or so fighters to Singapore three this training to exercise the command Pacific Air Forces, also has a budget times a year to train alongside the Re- and control that will ensure they are of $5 million to $12.5 million for its public of Singapore Air Force—or to ready to respond if a crisis emerges.” own exercises. Most of those funds square off against them. Key Resolve A similar exercise, Ellipse Charlie, are spent on additional fuel and spare is a command post exercise with South will be a no-notice command post parts needed to transport people and Korea to prepare to repel an assault from and field training exercise to evaluate equipment across the area of operations. A B-52 taxis at Andersen AFB, Guam, communications between the staffs of The purpose of exercises attended during Green Lightning, a bilateral PACOM and Special Operations Com- by US forces alone is, obviously, to exercise performed with Australian joint terminal attack controllers. Of mand Pacific and build force capabilities train for war. Many grow directly out late, Australia has become increasingly in another nation. Given the no-notice of an operational plan. Northern Edge, important as an American ally in the nature of the exercise, PACOM officials for instance, is a joint exercise of air, Pacific region. USAF photo by A1C CourtneyWitt 74 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 2011 North Korea. Foal Eagle is a separate but related field exercise with the same An Unrelenting Exercise Schedule objective. Talisman Saber is a com- Last February, Japanese F-2 fighters flew from Tsukui Air Base southwest mand post and field training exercise of Tokyo to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam to train alongside Air Force with the armed services of Australia, and Navy pilots in an exercise called Cope North. a longtime ally that has become even In March, USAF A-10s flew from Osan Air Base in South Korea to a Thai more important as PACOM has turned airfield at Udon Thani to exercise with Thai and Singaporean aviators in its attention toward the South China Cope Tiger. Sea and Southeast Asia. “The focus,” Then, in April, came Cope West at Halim Air Base, Indonesia; it involved said a PACOM officer, “is on high-end flying with Indonesian aviators. combat operations transitioning into This past May, Total Force airmen and soldiers trained in Thailand with peacekeeping or other post-conflict Thais and Cambodians in Operation Pacific Angel, focusing on humanitar- ian missions. operations.” Another Pacific Angel took Air Force personnel to Bangladesh in June, None of these exercises are aimed at a and yet another featured a USAF team in Vietnam. particular nation, say American officials The US forces were just getting warmed up for what came next: the world’s in public. That posture is intended to largest maritime exercise, Rim of the Pacific. RIMPAC brought together 32 preclude a diplomatic protest from an ships, five submarines, 170 aircraft, and 20,000 personnel from 14 Asian, offended nation and to avoid placing European, and Western Hemisphere nations around Hawaii in July for am- an American ally or partner in a po- phibious, air defense, and live fire drills. litically difficult position with another In July, the F-22 deployed to South Korea for the first time ever. Several Asian nation. Even so, the “countries” F-22s participated in a bilateral exercise, Invincible Spirit, with South Korea. in the exercises sometimes bear close In August, medics from USAF, Mongolia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka trained together in Sri Lanka. resemblance to certain nations. For Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aircraft exercised in Valiant Shield at example, “Redland” clearly resembles Guam and in the central Pacific in September. It tested operational plans to China, while “Blueland” is recognizable defend islands in the Western Pacific belonging to allied or friendly nations. as North Korea. In October’s Max Thunder, the 18th Aggressor Squadron, flying F-16s with The Chinese People’s Liberation paint schemes reminiscent of Russian MiGs and Sukhois, flew from Eielson Army lags well behind PACOM in AFB, Alaska, to Kwangju, South Korea, to scrimmage against USAF and size, complexity, and frequency of its South Korean F-15s and F-16s. That same month, B-52s flew from Andersen exercises, according to knowledgeable to Australia in Exercise Hamel, in which Australian controllers guided them officials. The PLA, encompassing all of on close air support missions. China’s military forces, conducts about Finally, December’s Keen Sword saw 10,500 American troops join about three times as many Japanese for a week of drills throughout Japan. The a quarter of the number of exercises run Americans were led by Lt. Gen. Herbert J. Carlisle, then commander of 13th by PACOM. Air Force, which plans and executes the Pacific Air Forces exercise program. Yet, the PLA has come a long way in The training included integrated air and missile defense, base security and the last 25 years. At a Chinese naval base force protection, search and rescue operations, and maritime interdiction. in the mid-1980s, a US naval officer on duty as an attache in Beijing was asked how much time the PLA Navy warships of the PLA general staff, called on the troop commanders had struggled to that were tied up to piers trained at sea.