Yellow Jackets and Wizards complete Cope Thunder exercise.About 1,000 participants from the Navy and the Air Force took advantage of Alaska's vast airspace from 7-21 October 2005 as U.S. forces from across the globe took part in the third Cope Thunder exercise of the year at Eielson Air Force Base Eielson Air Force Base (IATA: EIL, ICAO: PAEI, FAA LID: EIL) is located in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska. It is part of the 'Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area'. As of the 2000 census, the population of the base is 5,400. . While the 68,000 square miles of military training airspace over interior Alaska was soupy soup·y adj. soup·i·er, soup·i·est 1. Having the appearance or consistency of soup. 2. Informal Foggy: soupy weather. 3. Informal Sentimental. and marginal most of the two-week period, operations ran as normal. Despite snow-covered grounds, taxiways, and runways, the flight line was alive with VAQ-138 and VAQ-133 EA-6B aircraft which participated in myriad blue and red air exercises. In addition to the Yellow Jackets and Wizards, there were Air Force squadrons from Germany, Japan, Guam, Georgia, and Alaska participating, incorporating F-16s, F-15s, B-1Bs, A-10s, KC-135s, HC-130s, and HH-60Gs. The two-week event took place out of both Eielson and Elmendorf Air Force bases. The exercise offers realistic combat training that prepares units for deployments, including training for the suppression of enemy air defenses That activity which neutralizes, destroys, or temporarily degrades surface-based enemy air defenses by destructive and/or disruptive means. Also called SEAD. See also electromagnetic spectrum; electronic warfare. , air to air combat, close air support, combat search and rescue A specific task performed by rescue forces to effect the recovery of distressed personnel during war or military operations other than war. Also called CSAR. See also search and rescue. , and time sensitive large force strikes. The Cope Thunder military operating airspace included mock airfields, buildings, hangars, towers, radar surface to air missile sites, and areas for dropping live ordnance. A full electronic warfare Noun 1. electronic warfare - military action involving the use of electromagnetic energy to determine or exploit or reduce or prevent hostile use of the electromagnetic spectrum EW military action, action - a military engagement; "he saw action in Korea" range allowed the Yellow Jackets and the Wizards to bring their electronic jamming Noun 1. electronic jamming - deliberate radiation or reflection of electromagnetic energy for the purpose of disrupting enemy use of electronic devices or systems jamming, jam to the fight. Throughout the exercise aircraft were susceptible to simulated enemy radars, simulated enemy surface to air missile launches, and aggressor AGGRESSOR, crim. law. He who begins, a quarrel or dispute, either by threatening or striking another. No man may strike another because he has threatened, or in consequence of the use of any words. aircraft. Several aircrew and over 100 maintainers from both VAQ-138 and VAQ-133 made the trek to northern Alaska for the exercise. While the six jets from the two squadrons performed well, getting parts out of Whidbey and up to Eielson proved challenging. Maintainers worked around the clock to keep the jets at top performance, and crews put in long days of planning to execute the missions. Whether flying aggressor missions or blue force missions, the flying was great and the most was taken out of each flight. With over 100 hours and 45 sorties flown, the Yellow Jackets and the Wizards definitely got the best out of Cope Thunder. By Ltjg. Jeff Bruner and Lt. Jason Stiefer |
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