Summer Warrior’s Army-like combat trains air control squadron on land
By Marni McEntee, Stars
and Stripes
Marni McEntee / Stars and Stripes
Airman Raimundo Ortiz places a scale beneath a truck's tires to weigh the vehicle before a
convoy Wednesday. Some 135 airmen from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, are deploying to a
German range near Wiesbaden for Exercise Summer Warrior. |
SPANGDAHLEM AB, Germany — One of the Air Force’s last two
air control squadrons in Europe will begin an Army-style combat exercise this week near
Wiesbaden.
More than 130 airmen from the 606th Air Control Squadron from
Spangdahlem Air Base will tow their radar and other technical gear in three, 20-vehicle
convoys heading out Wednesday for Kemel, Germany. There, at the home of the German 3rd
Squadron, 42nd Surface-to-Air-Missile Group, the airmen will both cooperate with and pit
themselves against their NATO allies.
“Only a couple of people have seen the script, so it will be a
big surprise,” said 606th Commander Lt. Col. James Dew Monday of the training
exercise dubbed Summer Warrior.
At least two A-10 Thunderbolts from the Spangdahlem-based 81st
Fighter Squadron will fly air support for the 606th convoy, coming up against mock
anti-aircraft fire during the 140-mile convoy, said Capt. Alan McCrackin, chief of
scheduling for the 81st Fighter Squadron.
“We’ll be targeting the A-10s as well as playing the good
guys [by cooperating with the 606th radar unit], German Maj. Ralf Moortz said.
Sixty airmen from his squadron will join in the war games.
It will be the first time his unit will establish a data link with
the 606th squadron’s radar, he said.
Chong |
The German air defense missile system, known as Roland, has a range
of just over 12 miles, while the American system can target aircraft up to 200 miles away,
said Maj. Uk Chong, chief of combat readiness for the 606th.
McCrackin said the A-10 unit rarely gets to work alongside the 606th
or go against the German Roland system.
“It will be a good challenge for us and a good challenge for
them,” he said.
The 606th is one of only two air control squadrons in Europe, which
once hosted 12 such squadrons before drawdowns in the late 1980s. The second is based at
Aviano, Italy.
The squadrons have mobile radar systems that keep track of combat air
patrols, monitor jets and refuelers when they gas up in mid-air and assist in bombing
operations, Dew said. It has been at least a year since the unit has trained in such a
large exercise because of hoof-and-mouth disease restrictions, he said.
The squadron also is unusual because it travels as a self-contained
unit: It needs no security patrol or engineering support. The squadron members set up and
operate the mobile radar site, string protective concertina wire and ferret out booby
traps or enemy troops.
“We’re called the Army of the Air Force,” said Airman
Erika Chapman, 19.
The 120-pound airman is qualified to wield the 32-pound M-60 machine
gun, which she’ll use to help secure and defend the radar operators.
“That’s why we do this training — because our airmen
aren’t really conditioned for it,” Dew said.
In addition to the air and ground assaults, the units also will have
to defend against a chemical attack and a group of angry protesters — played by the
German airmen.
Exercise Summer Warrior will continue from Wednesday through Aug. 1
in Kemel, then return by convoy to Spangdahlem.
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