Kentucky Guardsmen Sharpen Capabilities Alongside NATO Partners

Airmen assigned to the Kentucky Air National Guard enhanced their global capabilities while training alongside NATO partners from the United Kingdom and Canada in Scotland this summer.

The guardsmen deployed four C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, 62,000 pounds of equipment and 60 personnel to Glasgow Prestwick Airport in South Ayrshire, Scotland, Aug. 14-22.

While there, they conducted specialized fueling operations, low-level formation flying and rapid-reaction aircraft launches to maintain combat mission certifications. The airmen also completed maritime equipment and personnel airdrops, including two open-ocean rescue scenarios with a helicopter unit assigned to the British Royal Navy.

"The deployment was designed to accomplish a large amount of C-130J continuation and tactical training while taking advantage of an unfamiliar overseas operating environment and opportunities to work directly with allied partners," said Air Force Lt. Col. Nick Reinke, the mission commander and a C-130 pilot assigned to the 165th Airlift Squadron.

He added that while many of the individual training events could be conducted in the U.S., it is much harder to reproduce an unfamiliar environment.

"At home station, crews know the airspace, air traffic control procedures, airfields, support agencies and local practices," Reinke said. "In Scotland, even something as routine as a proficiency circuit required crews to understand and coordinate with a different [air traffic control] system."

Reinke said coordination with host nation agencies was critical to the exercise's success.

"That forces crews to solve the kinds of interoperability, communication, planning and adaptation problems they encounter when operating globally. Worldwide capability is more than simply being able to fly across the Atlantic. It means arriving with the people and equipment needed to operate, understanding an unfamiliar airspace and support structure, integrating with allied forces, adapting when weather or circumstances change the plan, and continuing to accomplish the mission."

Reinke added that the deployment also underscored the importance of relationships.

The Kentucky unit, based in Louisville, worked closely with civilian support agencies at Glasgow Prestwick Airport to complete specialized fueling operations, during which a C-130J was refueled while its engines were still running. Reinke said this "hot pit" method validated the airport's ability to support the technique and provided practical experience to host-nation fuel personnel.

"That partnership leaves behind a more capable location for follow-on and allied forces in the future, rather than the benefit ending when our deployment ended," he noted.

One of the deployment's key accomplishments was a five-ship formation flight, conducted with four Kentucky aircraft and one C-130J from the Royal Canadian Air Force.

"The Canadian aircraft commander was actually a U.S. Marine Corps exchange pilot," Reinke said. "That meant our mission planning and briefing had to reconcile U.S. Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps procedures and terminology to make sure everyone had the same understanding before execution. That is exactly the kind of interoperability that is difficult to simulate."

The deployment's other main focus was open-ocean rescue.

The scenario required a U.S. Air Force C-130 crew to locate a stranded airman floating in a life raft on the Atlantic Ocean, miles from shore. Loadmasters then airdropped an inflatable motorboat near the victim, and three special tactics airmen used precision jumpmaster techniques to parachute into the ocean, deploy the boat and provide first aid. Once complete, they coordinated with the Royal Navy's 814 Naval Air Squadron to execute helicopter hoist operations and extract the victim as the C-130 provided overwatch.

"The integration with the Royal Navy was one of the highlights of the exercise," Reinke said. "It allowed our pararescue personnel and C-130J crews to integrate fixed-wing airdrop, maritime rescue, rotary-wing insertion and recovery, and on-scene command and control with a NATO partner."

A pararescue flight chief for the special tactics team described the operating environment in Scotland as "vastly different" from training locations in the United States.

"It's a lot colder here, and the salt water is an unusual factor for us," he said. "The Royal Navy also uses different geolocation methods, and they have different tactics and techniques than we typically employ."

He noted that the Royal Navy's helicopter, a Merlin Mk2, generates substantially more rotor wash than the UH-60 Black Hawk.

"Those are the kinds of things you don't anticipate, but we were able to work through them and figure out what worked best for their guys and for us," the airman said. "We had to be flexible on the spot to get the mission done."

Royal Navy Capt. James Hall said the exercise provided valuable opportunities for the Merlin Mk2 force to enhance capabilities outside of its normal role in antisubmarine warfare.

"Exercises such as this, conducted alongside our United States Air Force partners, enable our crews to maintain and enhance critical search and rescue skills, while strengthening the interoperability that underpins NATO's collective security," he said.

Royal Navy Lt. S. Cass, a flight commander assigned to the 814 Naval Air Squadron, agreed, adding that he hopes to continue working with "our friends across the pond" in the years to come.

Reinke called the deployment an unqualified success, not necessarily for any single event but for the readiness training they were able to layer into one exercise.

"We were able to use legitimate flight training requirements to generate maximum value, ensuring worldwide readiness while working with our international partners," he said. "We also were able to build strong human relationships with the men and women of our partner nations, laying the kind of foundation that makes coalition operations successful."