DVIDS – News – 180FW trains for the future fight

More than 100 Airmen and 10 F-16 Fighting Falcons from the Ohio National Guard's 180th Fighter Wing deployed to Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Wisconsin in early August to participate in exercise Northern Lightning.

Northern Lightning is an annual training event held at the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center, a joint certified Air National Guard facility, and utilizes an integrated, comprehensive training environment with specialization in electronic warfare, access and air denial for units to improve their combat capability and readiness.

During this two-week exercise, the 180FW had the opportunity to demonstrate its ability to integrate into joint forces, focusing on air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, air tactics with diverse aircraft, and offensive and defensive air defense missions with realistic surface-to-air and air-to-air threats.

“With Northern Lightning, the key factor is the scope of the exercise and the integration of the fourth and fifth generations,” said Maj. Travis Dancer, an F-16 fighter pilot and Northern Lightning project manager. “Because both aircraft can perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, we can leverage each other's advantages.”

The ability to integrate their fourth generation aircraft with fifth generation aircraft was a major theme of Northern Lightning.
“The big learning objective here is to use the fifth generation to complement the fourth generation aircraft,” said Capt. Patrick Haugen, an F-16 pilot assigned to the 180FW.

Northern Lightning provides a great training environment for pilots to test this integration in real-world environments.

“When we fly the F-35, we try to use our systems paired with their systems and see how they complement each other. Then we test our game plans to see if they work,” Haugen said.

A key goal of Northern Lightning was to highlight how the aircraft complement each other. The 180FW worked with U.S. Marine pilots to synchronize the F-16 with the F-35, focusing on the advantages each aircraft offers in combat.

“It's important that we're in this joint environment because that's how we're going to win the war,” Haugen said. “There won't be just one type of aircraft and working with our naval partners allows us to train to win a nearly peer-to-peer conflict.”

Dancer agreed that Northern Lightning underlined the importance of inter-service training across the Department of Defence.

“When we talk about the future of warfare, the separation of the different branches takes a back seat,” Dancer said. “I think that's a good thing because assets like the Marine Corps' F-35 open up a new capability to the fight that can work well with our F-16s. The more we move into that joint environment, the more necessary that becomes given the future prospects of our adversaries.”

Volk Field was an ideal location for this fourth and fifth generation integration during Northern Lightning. The airspace is much larger than that used by the 180FW at home for training, allowing more open space for training with the F-35s.

“At Volk Field, the most important factor is airspace,” Dancer said. “Up here in the northern United States, we have a lot more airspace that we can utilize, which is very conducive to our type of training that we wouldn't get back home in Ohio airspace.”

The airspace wasn't the only factor that made Volk Field ideal for Northern Lightning. Volk Field is a large base with military housing, allowing the members of the 180FW, comprised primarily of traditional Guardsmen, to live and work together for extended periods of time, which is critical to improving morale and readiness.

“The facilities at Volk Field with their housing and meeting rooms that we don't have at home are a big factor,” Dancer said. “Coming here allows the unit to come together, which is an important part of these exercises.”

Northern Lightning provided the 180FW with the opportunity to test the integration of fourth and fifth generation aircraft and their joint training capabilities, ensuring the 180FW was always operational and available.
“The experience of a large-scale exercise and the stress that comes with it is invaluable,” Haugen said. “We don't want to use these tactics for the first time in war, so we're working through all of these issues together as a unit so our pilots are prepared for any real-world scenario in the future.”

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the pilots in the air and the Stinger Airmen on the ground, the 180FW was able to complete more than 146 training sorties totaling over 217.5 flight hours, enhancing the 180FW's ability to execute its missions in a joint, combat-like environment.