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Charleston C-17s to make Army IRC happen

CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (USTCNS) --- Eleven Charleston Air Force Base C-17s will demonstrate their ability to quickly put massive amounts of Army forces on the ground as part of three combined exercises June 18-23.

Charleston aircrews and maintainers, along with a host of other Air Mobility Command airlifters, will employ the Army as part of the first-ever validation of the Immediate Ready Company, the Army's armored reinforcement of the 82nd Airborne Division rapid response capability to a contingency.

The exercises will keep Charleston C-17s busy, as all active duty and reserve flying squadrons will participate, to include two six-ship C-17 airdrops of personnel, an eight-ship heavy equipment drop, 14 airland sorties on an austere runway and two Container Delivery System airdrops. The exercise marks the first time that Charleston has delivered the IRC.

The IRC scenario ensures that heavy armor and other supporting equipment are rapidly airlanded onto an austere runway once the Strategic Brigade Airdrop seizes an airfield for use by friendly forces. The IRC occurs about four hours after the initial SBA heavy equipment and personnel airdrops. The SBA includes a wide variety of Army attack helicopters, and Air Force and Marine close air support aircraft that clear the area first while numerous other aircraft provide overhead support.

About 450 people deployed for the exercise, mostly to Pope Air Force Base, N.C., and Lawson Army Air Airfield, Ga. Col. Glenn Mackey, 437th Operations Group deputy commander, is the director of mobility forces for the exercise. The base was designated as the lead wing to plan the exercise. Charleston deployed 135 members, which includes staff, aircrews, maintenance, supply, aerial port and combat camera.

Charleston aircrews will bring in the 82nd Airborne Assault forces from Fort Bragg, N.C., during the exercise. Among some of the requirements that Charleston members will help handle include airdropping 3,000 paratroopers and 32 heavy equipment platforms, and airlanding heavy armor, to include four M1A1 tanks and four Bradley fighting vehicles. In addition, Charleston will airdrop 240 Container Delivery System bundles for resupply. A contingent of 10 C-130s will haul in 88 pieces of rolling equipment and supplies with 44 sorties over a 24-hour period.

"The Army forces will link up with the Marines. The Marines will accomplish a beach landing. We are dropping the Army 600 yards from the beach," said lead planner of the exercise Maj. Chris Birge, chief of the Wing Tactics shop in the 437th Operations Support Squadron.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff exercises are called Purple Dragon, Roving Sands and Purple Caduceus, and they all occur simultaneously. Purple Dragon is an Army assault and forced insertion of an Army strategic brigade. The XVIII Airborne Corps and U.S. Army Forces Command plan Purple Dragon every 18-24 months. Charleston AFB will participate primarily in the Purple Dragon exercise, which involves an emerging third world threat that results in a military coup and extensive civilian-military operations. This is the first C-17-led Big Drop (Purple Dragon) exercise.

Roving Sands is an air and missile defense exercise. It is the Joint Forces Command-sponsored exercise and is the umbrella for Purple Dragon and Purple Caduceus. It is also a multinational exercise with involvement of forces from the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada.

Purple Caduceus is a medical exercise. It is the first-ever inclusion of the aeromedical forces in a Joint Forces Command exercise by elements of the active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and medical forces of the Netherlands. The AMC Surgeon General was heavily involved in planning the movement of 300 patients a day between three field hospital sites and in coordinating availability of C-9 and C-130 aircraft.

"All of the wings are using this exercise as partial operational readiness inspection credit for airdrops and austere landings. The Air Mobility Command inspector general will observe our performance. This marks the first validation of the IRC reinforcement of the Strategic Brigade Airdrop," said Lt. Col. John Zazworsky, C-17 mission commander at Pope and chief of wing safety. "We're bringing in more punch than usual and hauling in the heavy tank forces too."

"This is great training for our aircrews. It is not every day that you get to practice medium to heavy weight landings at night on an austere runway with a steady stream of airplanes coming in and out. It is a good test of an aircrew's proficiency," Zazworsky said.

All of the airdrops will occur at night, which allows the Army and Marines the cover of darkness to employ their ground forces. Charleston will only airdrop the Army forces.

"This is when they want to employ their forces at night because it gives them a tactical advantage. Our first night of drops will be at Camp Lejeune, N.C., with Marine aviation such as F/A-18s and AV-8Bs attacking. On the second night, we drop more airborne forces at Fort Bragg with a full compliment of A-10s, F-16s and other attack helicopters clearing the way for heavy equipment drops, followed by the ground forces."

The sequence for the first night's mission is 17 C-130s and six C-17s dropping personnel, and the sequence for the second night's mission is eight C-17s dropping heavy equipment, 17 C-130s and six C-17s dropping personnel, 14 C-17 assault landings, and 44 C-130 assault landings.

Lead planner for the exercise for the past nine months was Birge. As the lead planner, he was responsible for coordinating all of the AMC agencies to pull off a successful exercise.

"We've had to pull together the aircrew operations, TALCE, maintenance, aerial delivery and all the other support required to ensure that our people got valuable training from the exercise. It was very challenging because it incorporates every aspect of our tactical delivery mission. We will measure our success based on the quality of the realistic training that our aircrews and support elements got in this go-to-war mission for the Army and Marines."

The training objectives for the exercise were 85 percent on-time departure for all formations, all landings in the assault zone and off-load of cargo in 30 minutes or less, airdrop of 2,700 jumpers and 28 platforms within one minute of the time over the target and meet all refueling contact times for at least 10 minutes.

The drop zones are located at Camp Lejeune and Ft. Bragg, N.C., and 18 C-17s and 17 C-130s are participating in the exercise. The exercise integrates C-17 and C-130 tactical operations by practicing large formation training. All C-17 units are participating to include McChord AFB, Wash., Altus AFB, Okla., and both the active duty and reserve wings at Charleston. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

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