Page 3 - Nellis AFB Bullseye 6-26-15

BULLSEYE
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GREEN FLAG, from page 1___
etrating a contested and degraded
battlespace, awaiting calls for fire
from ground commanders below.
Developments in the F-35 pro-
gram remain a high priority for
Department of Defense and Air
Force leadership alike, as pressure
mounts to realize the system’s full
capabilities. It’s a positive that
for JTACs and air liaison officers
calling shots from the sand, the
sleek looking gray triangle dart-
ing through the clouds was doing
its job effectively — just like those class graduated June 2013, with the US-
that came before it.
“We’re working for mass inter-
agency effects here,” said U.S.
Army Col. Matthew Moore, NTC
Operations Group deputy com-
mander. “We’re glad to have the
support of the F-35s here and that
it was able to play its role in what
is a full team effort.”
The roles played by the two oper-
ational test fighters seem relatively
modest when examined within the
immense scale of a National Train-
ing Center rotation. Fourteen days
of maneuvering against adversar-
ies in vast desert mountain ranges
makes Green Flag a test of the mind
and body alike. But when help from
the air was called upon, F-35 pilots
from the 31st TES communicated
and used their systems with preci-
sion.
They created strategic effects
that left troops on the ground
largely unware and unconcerned of
what airframe they might be using
— seamless integration at its finest.
News
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Rachel Loftis
JTAC, from page 1 _____________
as experts in air-to-ground tactics, tech-
niques, procedures, and in the integra-
tion of all aspects of theater air, space, Master Sgt. Jared Pietras, left, U.S. Air Force Weapons School Joint Terminal Attack
and cyber power.”
Each graduate from the five-and-a-
half month JTAC course has completed
23 full-mission profiles and devoted
752 total hours in the classroom and
on the range to complete the course’s
curriculum.
The first JTAC AIC cadre graduated
in December 2012 and the first student
AFWS injecting these tactical and stra-
tegic leaders back into the force every
six months since the course’s inception.
According to its official fact sheet,
the USAFWS teaches graduate-level in-
structor courses that provide the world’s
most advanced training in weapons
and tactics employment. The goals of
the courses are to train students to be
tactical experts in their combat specialty
while also learning the art of battle-
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Kleinholz LEFT: A Joint Terminal Attack Controller assigned to the 7th Air
3June 26, 2015
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Nellis bids
farwell, best
retirement
wishes to
99th ABW vice
commander
Brig. Gen. Stephen Whiting, left, U.S. Air Force Warfare Center
vice commander, presents Col. Robert Ramsden, 99th Air Base
Wing vice commander, with a certificate of retirement at the
Club on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., June 19. Ramsden retired
with 25 years of service in the U.S. Air Force and was the vice
commander of the 99th ABW for two years. Ramsden entered
the Air Force in November 1990 as a student in Undergraduate
Space Training at Lowry AFB, Colo. He is a graduate of the
U.S. Air Force Weapons School, and deployed in support of
Operations Southern Watch and Enduring Freedom. Ramsden
and Whiting served together from 1991 to 1993 at the 6th
Space Warning Squadron, Cape Cod Air Force Station, Mass.
U.S. Air Force photo by Susan Garcia
Controller Advanced Instructor Course instructor, and Tech. Sgt. James Larsen, JTAC AIC
student, pass target coordinates to an AH-64D Apache helicopters on the Nevada Test
and Training Range, Oct. 9, 2014. The USAFWS teaches graduate-level instructor courses
that provide the world’s most advanced training in weapons and tactics employment.
space dominance. Weapons School graduates are extensively
familiar not only with the weapons platform or system they
have been trained in through their career path, but also in
how all Air Force and Department of Defense assets can be
employed in concert to achieve synergistic effects.
Support Operations Squadron, Fort Bliss, Texas, uses a radio to
direct the pilot of an F-16 Fighting Falcon toward designated
targets during a Green Flag 15-08 training scenario June 12 at
the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif. The JTAC pictured
is conducting a “talk on,” during which a controller communicates
navigational information as well as calls for fire to a pilot in the air
in order to support the needs of the ground commander.