NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE: Airmen from two U.S. Air Force Weapons School squadrons and aircrews flying 40 heavy-body aircraft completed a Mobility Air Forces Exercise over the Nevada Test and Training Range here Nov. 18.
“This is essentially the capstone for our Weapons Instructor Course, helping us learn how to plan, schedule and execute large scale operations with not only other units from across the Air Force, but with the Army as well,” said Capt. Daniel Hilferty, a weapons school student and student planner for the exercise.
The MAFEX is designed to culminate months of training that the students have received and challenge them to plan and execute a joint forcible entry airborne assault operation, integrating worldwide assets.
This is the fifth time the bi-annual exercise has taken place, with this iteration involving more than 50 aircraft and 1500 servicemembers, including nearly 400 Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne and aircraft ranging from F-15E Strike Eagles and HH-60 Pave Hawks to C-130 Hercules and MQ-9 Reapers.
“We integrate the students with other airframes and services so they have a better understanding of what they will be seeing when they leave here,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Oliver, the weapons school deputy commandant and a C-130 pilot. “The integrated lessons learned provided by this event drive Air Force and joint warfighting expertise to the highest level.”
This is the second time Capt. John Paul Kilker, a weapons school student, has participated in the MAFEX, first actively flying in the exercise and now as a exercise planner.
“You get a new appreciation for the guys putting the exercise together behind the scenes as opposed to getting your orders and executing after seeing it from both sides,” he said.
“The level of coordination is unbelievable,” said Captain Hilferty. “We are bringing aircraft that are taking off from across the country to the Nevada Test and Training Range with an arrival time flexible only by a minute, and giving these aircrews a target drop zone of only 100 yards to drop their troops and gear, and from what I have seen so far, we have been on point with everything.”
One of the key components to the exercise was the training range, which is maintained by the 98th Range Wing, and serves as the school’s training ground.
“The (range) is phenomenal,” said Captain Kilker. “It’s a great training theater and the threats that they simulated provided an experience that I will not forget.”
On the surface the exercise went as planned, but to ensure the students learned from their mistakes, they sat down with their instructors to scrutinize and evaluate the exercise to see exactly what went right and wrong.
“My first impression was that this was very successful,” said Captain Hilferty. “We made all of our drops on time and where they needed to be. But now we are going dig down into it and see what we learned. Even if we don’t achieve every objective, the learning experience we got from MAFEX was well worth the work.”
