Groundbreaking advancements to F-16 Fighting Falcon warfare training here arrived in the course of the week of Aug. 12 through 16 inside the variety of a Joint Deployable Electronic Warfare Range, or JDEWR.
The JDEWR is a weapon system that gives tactical-level training to participants in live training events. It’s implemented as a threat able to submitting ground threat defenses for bilateral and joint missions and exercises for U . s . a . Air Force, Japan Air Self-Militia and Navy aircraft stationed here, per Lt. Col. Kevin Jones, 35th Operations Support Squadron director of operations.
The mission of the 35th Fighter Wing is the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses – is called the Wild Weasels — and focuses largely at the neutralization of enemy Surface to Air missile sites. Previously, Wild Weasels have needed to fly to Red Flag exercises over Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, which use the JDEWR system, to get the foremost accurate training possible for his or her SEAD mission.
“As a SEAD wing, we have to have the capacity to detect, locate, engage and kill enemy SAMs, antiaircraft artillery and their associated radars,” said Capt. Matthew Karmondy, an F-16 pilot within the 14th Fighter Squadron who has flown in multiple Red Flag exercises. “The more our training matches reality, the simpler we’ll be when the balloon goes up and we’re called directly to neutralize enemy threats.”
Karmondy said once a SAM is found, the next move is the right way to best neutralize that threat, whether it’s through avoidance, electronic jamming or kinetic means similar to bombs, missiles or guns. Pilots were previously forced to simulate these attacks, and one of the crucial realities was that the aspect of realistic feedback from the bottom always fell short. Now, with this new system, pilots can fight back realistically, utilizing all aspects in the cockpit.
“That’s exactly what the JDEWR allows us to do – train like we’ll fight in major combat operations,” Karmondy said. “Short of putting missiles and bullets within the air, the JDEWR fights back. It’s a hugely important asset.”
Capt. Travis Smith, 35 OSS electronic warfare officer, said the JDEWR can simulate as much as seven different target systems simultaneously in its current configuration.
“It’s rapidly re-deployable besides, so shall we have vastly different set ups for the pilots to fly against from exercise to exercise in our own backyard,” Smith added.
Before the JDEWR’s arrival, Jones said “We didn’t get to look a genuine threat at the radar staring at us — nothing triggered our radar warning receiver. But now the advent of the JDEWR gives the power to truly get a spike and act accordingly to that threat.”
Having the equipment here for a sensible threat environment also postures Misawa to potentially host large scale exercises at some point, boosting value in regional training with other military assets.
“Joint and bilateral training is important in that it’s just the truth of the way we’re going to visit war in today’s day and age,” Jones said.
The Japan Ground Self-Military has provided noteworthy assistance to Wild Weasels in recent months by opening up their SAM sites for training, albeit their availability was often limited, Karmody said.
The arrival of the JDEWR makes Misawa and its surrounding airspace a top-of-the-line training forum available 24/7.
The JDEWR is the primary of its kind to be placed in Japan and could be based at Misawa’s Draughon Range, a local located only 10 nautical miles north of the bottom where pilots are authorized to drop live ordnance during training.
Jones said Draughon Range is “one of the proper kept secrets within the Air Force,” lauding its ability to supply both tactical and traditional targets, while also being the sole air-to-ground range in Northern Japan.
“It’s great to look pilots learn on Draughon Range by practicing their attacks and growing as pilots,” said Capt. Greg Balzhiser, 13th Fighter Squadron F-16 pilot. “You can actually see the consequences at the ground right in front of you instead of having to simulate the result of an attack.”
35 FW pilots generally fly in two airspaces – the Charlie airspace, a huge area located along all of the northwest coast of Japan, and the Bravo airspace to the east, which encompasses the precious Gaicho airspace.
The Gaicho airspace was made available earlier this year and has played a huge role inside the comprehensive and innovative efforts of Misawa AB to become globally recognized in extensive fighter jet training. Gaicho airspace feeds off the east side of Draughon Range and expands the airspace approximately 50 miles over the Pacific Ocean to bridge the distance between Bravo airspace, providing pilots significant more room to have interaction in variations of combat training scenarios.
1st Lt. Dustin Carey, 13 FS F-16 pilot, said it’s the superior airspace on the planet, and adding the JDEWR to the combination allows pilots to explore the entire range of tactics in warfare.
“The JDEWR is de facto imperative,” Carey said. “We’re the world’s greatest Wild Weasels, and now that we’ve got the emitter we’ll be ready to train exactly like we fight that is absolutely incredible.”
Smith said the range of educating won’t stop with the JDEWR, and systems reminiscent of fidelity simulators, different modes in the jet, or even commercial, off-the-shelf hardware are used to practice against.
“We’re constantly staring at the mission set and pondering how to augment training in order that the 35th Operations Group could be greater than ready for the fight,” said Smith.
The JDEWR should be operated by contractors within Pacific Air Forces which have wide-ranging experience with Large Force Employment training, namely Red Flag, and in time could be training others to take over the operations here.
Jones said this prospect was made possible by determined coordination between 5th Air Force, PACAF and U.S. Forces Japan, and that base officials are working a plan to make this an everlasting fixture here.
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