109th Air Wing participates in National Disaster Medical System exercise

By 2nd Lt. Colette Martin, 109th Air Wing

SCOTIA, N.Y. (8/9/13) - Members from several local agencies across the Capital District participated in a coordinated National Disaster Medical System Exercise on Aug. 8 and 9 at Stratton Air National Guard Base, Schenectady, N.Y.

The agencies consisted of members from the 109th Airlift Wing, 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, the Albany Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Disaster Medical System, the Civil Air Patrol and the Alplaus Volunteer Fire Department.

During this exercise, patients were stabilized for transport, loaded onto an LC-130 Hercules and evacuated by members of the 139 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron who were sharpening their skills for an actual medical evacuation.

The patients, participating cadets from the Civil Air Patrol, were moved from the Aplaus Volunteer Fire Department to Stratton ANGB and loaded onto a C-130 for transport.

This exercise highlighted the vital function of the 109AW and 139AES in the NDMS and homeland defense mission as well as the cooperation and coordination between the 109AW and New York state civilian medical and emergency management assets.

This exercise demonstrated interagency partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the instrumental role of aeromedical evacuation in the national emergency response and national defense frameworks.

NDMS is a federally-coordinated system that augments the nation's medical response capability by combining federal and non-federal medical resources into a unified response to meet natural and man-made disaster needs, as well as support patient treatment requirements from military contingencies.

Stratton ANGB is a federal coordinating center whose mission is to recruit hospitals and maintain local non-federal hospital participation in the NDMS, coordinate exercise development and emergency plans with participating hospitals and other local authorities in order to develop patient reception, transportation, and communication plans, and during system activation, coordinate the reception and distribution of patients being evacuated to the area.

As members of the National Guard, the Airmen of the 109AW have responded to a number of state emergencies including Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

This exercise enabled the agencies to practice for future natural disasters.

The 109AW is the only unit in the United States military that flies aircraft equipped to land on snow. The wing provides support to National Science Foundation operations in Antarctica and Greenland and has also flown conventional C-130s in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Breakdown Of Russia's Massive Military Exercise

A week ago, the Russian military completed the largest spot check exercise it has conducted since 1991. The MOD has put out some information on the scale and units involved. The slides were helpfully reproduced by Ruslan Pukhov in his blog.  They are done in the usual Russian style — it’s all about how many planes flew, how many tons of equipment were moved, etc. Nevertheless, there are some interesting tidbits. Here are some highlights.

The exercise involved 160,000 personnel from all three military branches. Ground forces from all four Eastern district armies and the 41st army of the Central district were involved, including 9 infantry brigades, the 18th artillery division (based in the Southern Kurils), a tank brigade, 2 air assault brigades, a naval infantry brigade, 5 signal brigades, 2 artillery brigades, 2 rocket brigades, 1 MRLS brigade, 2 air defense brigades, 2 NBC defense brigades, 4 logistics brigades, and 2 equipment storage bases. 12,000 vehicles were activated.

The air force activated 130 aircraft and helicopters from four commands (Long Range Aviation, Military-Transport Aviation, 2nd Air and Air Defense Forces Command — Yekaterinburg, 3rd Air and Air Defense Forces Command — Khabarovsk). The specific air force units involved were the 6952nd LRA Base from Amur Oblast, the 6955th MTA Base from Tver, the 6980th aviation base from Chelyabinsk, and the 6983rd aviation base from Primorskii Krai.

Naval participation included 70 ships from the 36th surface ship division, 165th surface ship brigade, 10th and 25th submarine divisions, 19th submarine brigade, 100th assault ship brigade, 114th coastal defense ship brigade, and the 520th independent coastal missile-artillery brigade.

One infantry brigade arrived by sea, while 30 transport aircraft moved 8,500 personnel over 167 flights. 1000 reservists were involved, from Primorsky Krai. 45 field control centers were activated, most at the brigade level. 8 UAVs completed 22 flights. One of the 12 long range aviation planes failed to complete (or maybe to start?) its flight.

The overall assessment of these exercises from the military has been largely positive, though some areas did come in for criticism. Yuri Borisov noted that 3-4% of vehicles broke down during the exercise, either because of errors made by the  operators or because the equipment was old. This is not ideal, but is certainly a better statistic than in the bad old days a decade ago. Shoigu criticized the state of the communications system, noting that military communications are only 18% effective. It’s not clear what that number actually means, but it’s clearly not good. Marksmanship also came in for criticism, in part because of a lack of practice.  He was pleased with military transportation, highlighting in particular that railroad transportation functioned at almost double the allotted rate of travel (1000km/day vs 600km/day). He also noted that changes may be made to the structure of the air force, primarily by dividing up the air bases that were created a few years ago and and re-opening some of the military airports closed by Serdyukov.

UPDATE: Aleksei Nikolskii wrote to say that Shoigu’s statement on the communications systems being 18% effective referred to R&D efforts on C2 systems not producing results, rather than the systems’ effectiveness during the exercise itself.

 

Read more: https://russiamil.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/eastern-command-exercises-completed/#ixzz2aWigUsGc

 

 

Civil Air Patrol will practice for emergencies

The Civil Air Patrol has scheduled an exercise across Texas to brush up on skills used in emergency operations like Hurricane Ike. Details of the January 28-29 exercise were announced Friday, with plans for many of the state's more than 3,400 volunteer members to take part.

Read the entire Houston Chronicle published 10:36 p.m., Friday, January 20, 2012 at
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Civil-Air-Patrol-will-practice-for-emergencies-2658721.php

Thanks to Bill, the Fedcom List and the HoustonScan group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HoustonScan for the heads-up on this monitoring event.

Bizarre - DoD/Army MARS Exercise? What was this all about?

We certainly had some strange comms late yesterday afternoon and last evening EDT time on some US Army MARS frequencies. Both Jack Metcalfe in Kentucky and my MT colleague Hugh Stegman in California (via his twitter feed @UtilityWorld) reported what appears to be a high level DoD/Army MARS comm exercise.

There were three primary freqs reported:

Freq (Army MARS Designator passed)
14484.0 (KMC)
14487.0 (KME)
20994.0 (KSM)

I'm posting up each of their intercepts so that you can see what was heard.

14484.0 LOOKING GLASS in contact with 9 TANGO FOXTROT. 9TF passed exercise traffic to LOOKING GLASS. 9TF noted LOOKING GLASS would be "off station" in 11 mikes: 1953 USB Voice (29/MAR/2011) (JLM)

14484.0 9 UNIFORM SIERRA ALPHA calling TOP HAND & POKER FACE & raised POKER FACE for AAR8AY. AAR8AY holding traffic for STEP MOTHER. 9TF looking for a new frequency for direct contact with POKER FACE. Moved to 20994.0 USB (KSM) at 2028 UTC: 2019 USB voice (29/MAR/2011) (JLM)

14484.0 USB USAF exercise, unit w/ traffic for STEPMOTHER, others weak. ~2019, ongoing. (Hugh Stegman via Twitter)

14484.0 USB AAN6ELP 2026 clg Stepmother w/traffic. Then wkg ALPHA LIMA JULIET with IMMEDIATE grade msg coded in line format. (Hugh Stegman via Twitter)

14484.0 POKER FACE requesting phone patch, but 9TF not phone patch capable. Placed call & unid station confirmed he would be looking for POKER FACE on RF-17 at station CONCRETE. Also passed UHF MUX frequencies 325.4 & 344.4. 325.4 UHF WBFM just now active here: 2112 USB Voice (29/MAR/2011)(JLM)

14484.0 POKER FACE & 9TF in comms. 9TF passed 4 line message from AAN0BOI & POKER FACE said he would maintain this frequency as primary until he went off station. 325.4 UHF WBFM also still active here at this time.: 2138 USB Voice (29/MAR/2011)(JLM)

14487.0 TOP HAND receiving traffic from 9 TANGO CHARLIE. 9 TANGO FOXTROT suggested a move back to primary frequency KMC (14484.0). At 2325 UTC 9TF relayed traffic through 9USA to TOP HAND: 2336 USB Voice (29/MAR/2011) (JLM)

A very interesting set of comm intercepts indeed and many thanks to Hugh and Jack for sharing them. Now we shall see what pops up to let us determine what this was all about.

CAP to Conduct Disaster Relief Exercise this Weekend

According to an article in the online website of the Canby Herald, the Oregon CAP will be conducting a disaster relief exercise this weekend.

The large-scale exercise will include aerial and ground operations throughout the state as the CAP members respond to mock disasters and simulated terrorist activity.

A USAF team will observe the exercise and other agencies that will participate includes the U.S. Coast Guard and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.

The exercise will be run out of the patrol’s Incident Command Center at the Aurora State Airport.

For my friends on the PDX list and others in the area here are some VHF freqs to watch. These freqs are based on extensive monitoring and study, the frequency/designator list below is believed to be the current loadout of the ground radios used by the CAP nationwide.

And, before the CAP community has a major hemorrhage as usual and sends the Feds to knock down our door, let me hasten to add that the information presented in this column has come from open sources we found on various Internet websites and from Milcom monitors in various areas of the country. Absolutely no internal CAP classified sources were used to compile the frequency list below.

I wrote an extensive article on all of the VHF freqs used by CAP in the May 2010 Monitoring Times Milcom column (if you miss one issue you miss a lot). But to help out those who don't subscribe (and you really should), here are the frequencies to watch for CAP activity:

139.8750 141.0000 141.5750 143.5500 143.6250 143.600 143.7000 148.1250 148.1375 148.1500 149.2750 150.2250 150.5625 MHz

National CAP Plan (Supposedly Zone 1 in all the new ground-only radios)

141.5750 Simplex 127.3 Hz Command Control
141.0000 Simplex 131.8 Hz Command Control
149.2750 Simplex 141.3 Hz Air-to-Air
150.5625 Simplex 151.4 Hz Air-to-Air
150.2250 Simplex 162.2 Hz CAP Guard Channel
139.8750 Simplex 173.8 Hz Tactical/Miscellaneous use (also used on the Canadian Border as an input to the 148.1250 repeaters)
148.1250 Simplex 100.0 Hz Primary Talk-Around
148.1500 Simplex 100.0 Hz Secondary Talk-Around
148.1375/143.6250 203.5 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1375/143.6250 192.8 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1375/143.6250 131.8 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1375/143.6250 162.2 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1250/143.5500 203.5 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1250/139.8750 Canadian Border repeaters
148.1500/143.7000 203.5 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1500/143.6000 Canadian Border repeaters

Again there is more to all this, but that is about 2,000 words in the MT May issue. Field reports on what was heard is always welcomed at the email address in the masthead.

Multi-day FEMA Exercise Will Be Conducted Next May

We have received intel that there will be a big multi-day FEMA exercise next May 2011 involving four FEMA regions and eight states. I hope to have more information and frequencies at sometime in the future on this story.

Civil Air Patrol to Conduct Weekend Exercise in Northeast

The Northeast Region Civil Air Patrol will be conducting a region wide disaster relief exercise this weekend (7/31-8/1). Looks like there's going to be a lot of HF/SSB radio traffic including ALE operation. Will probably have a lot of air to ground VHF-NFM comms conducted by all wings throughout the region.

If you are an HF entusiasts CAP is quite active within the HF spectrum and can be interesting to monitor. The following ALE addresses have been seen here in BTown.

0001OKCAP 0002SCCAP 0004IACAP 0004ILCAP 0004MSCAP 0004NVCAP 0004NYCAP 0004SCCAP 0004WICAP 0004WVCAP 00081ILCAP 0010NVCAP 0010PACAP 0011ARCAP 0011DCCAP 001NHQCAP 0016MECAP 0020NHCAP 002NHQCAP 0032WICAP 0032WVCAP 0033COCAP 0040IACAP 0041CTCAP 0041MICAP 0041WICAP 0042MICAP 0042NHCAP 0043ILCAP 0048FLCAP 004MERCAP 004RMRCAP 004SERCAP 004SWRCAP 0078NVCAP 0094ALCAP 009NHQCAP 0100NDCAP 0100PRCAP 0112GACAP 0140NVCAP 0148KYCAP 0164CACAP 0196NECAP 0204MICAP 0204SCCAP 022NHQCAP 0272HICAP 028NHQCAP 0303WACAP 0314MICAP 031NHQCAP 033NHQCAP 034MERCAP 0355OKCAP 0360FLCAP 037RMRCAP 040NHQCAP 042RMRCAP 42SERCAP 0431ILCAP 043MERCAP 043NHQCAP 043SERCAP 044NCRCAP 046NHQCAP 047NHQCAP 047SERCAP 054NHQCAP 0602IACAP 060PCRCAP 062NHQCAP 064NHQCAP 0775NVCAP 0902ALCAP 1000SWRCAP 100NCRCAP 100NDCAP 100NDCAP 100NERCAP 100SWRCAP 101NCRCAP 101NERCAP 101SWRCAP 104MERCAP 201SERCAP 202SERCAP 900NHQCAP 901NHQCAP 909NHQCAP 9101ORCAP 951NHQCAP 952NHQCAP 971NHQCAP 991NHQCAP 998NHQCAP 999NHQCAP

I have found the assignment pattern for their ALE addresses as follows:

#### (state two ltr abbrev) CAP aka 0001OKCAP (A state/wing callsign)
### (region abbrev/NHQ) CAP aka 004MERCAP or 909NHQCAP (Region address/National HQ assigned address)

There are some 4-number addresses and these have all been associated with a state wing.

And here is my latest freq list (I know I am still missing some high end freqs)

2011.0 3204.0 4477.0 4585.0 5006.0 5447.0 6773.0 6806.0 7602.0 7665.0 8012.0 9047.0 10162.0 11402.0 12081.0 13415.0 14357.0 15602.0 17412.0 19814.0 25354.0 29894.0 kHz.

On the VHF/UHF side of the spectrum, I wrote an extensive article on all of this in the May 2010 MT Milcom column (if you miss one issue you miss a lot). But to help out those who don't subscribe (and you really should), here are the frequencies to watch for CAP activity:

139.8750 141.0000 141.5750 143.5500 143.6250 143.600 143.7000 148.1250 148.1375 148.1500 149.2750 150.2250 150.5625 MHz

National CAP Plan (Supposedly Zone 1 in all the new ground-only radios)

141.5750 Simplex 127.3 Hz Command Control
141.0000 Simplex 131.8 Hz Command Control
149.2750 Simplex 141.3 Hz Air-to-Air
150.5625 Simplex 151.4 Hz Air-to-Air
150.2250 Simplex 162.2 Hz CAP Guard Channel
139.8750 Simplex 173.8 Hz Tactical/Miscellaneous use (also used on the Canadian Border as an input to the 148.1250 repeaters)
148.1250 Simplex 100.0 Hz Primary Talk-Around
148.1500 Simplex 100.0 Hz Secondary Talk-Around
148.1375/143.6250 203.5 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1375/143.6250 192.8 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1375/143.6250 131.8 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1375/143.6250 162.2 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1250/143.5500 203.5 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1250/139.8750 Canadian Border repeaters
148.1500/143.7000 203.5 Hz Airborne/Tactical Repeater
148.1500/143.6000 Canadian Border repeaters

Again there is more to all this, but that is about 2,000 words in the MT May issue.

CAP To Conduct a Nationwide Exercise Soon

According to a post on Mike Marek's Facebook page, the CAP will be conducting a nationwide communications exercise sometime between now and the 4th of July.

According to Marek: "Some time in the next few weeks, before July 4th, we will be conducting a national communications exercise. Of course, we will not announce the exact date ahead of time, but I am writing to advise you of the general scenario, so you can prepare. I told the region DCS-COMMs about this some time back, so hopefully many of you already know the general outline.

"The national elements of this exercise are driven by the need to ramp up our use of HF-ALE. Regions and Wing should lay their own plans for how you pursue the exercise internally, as long as you do not use commercial telecommunications systems.

"The exercise will begin with an e-mail. Wings will be asked to report readiness to deploy across wing boundaries, reporting specific bits of information. For example, number of air crews, ground teams, aircraft and ground team vehicles available to deploy to another wing, or something along those lines.

"After collecting the information (without using the commercial infrastructure) wings will use radio to deliver the information to one of the two formal National Command Net (NCN) stations in their region, using formal traffic. The National Command Net stations will deliver the messages to AVS during the day and/or to a special National Headquarters station during evening hours. Messages will be received during certain pre-announced hours for a certain number of days. We will not announce in advance the geographic location of this special "evening hours" station.

"Wings should be prepared to operate HF-ALE, either from a regular existing station, or from a temporary RDP station. Only formally-appointed NCN stations should sound on the NCN frequencies, designated Net 1 in the standard frequency load of CAP's HF radios.

"This structure obviously leaves a lot of discretion to the regions and wings as to how you internally distribute the request for information and receive it back. I encourage you to include as many of your members as possible using HF, VHF, and even ISR radios."

So to my regular HF monitoring team, time to gear up on the CAP HF nets and watch for some activity in the near future.

New post-Soviet force begins military exercises

By PETER LEONARD, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press article vai BreitBart

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) - Thousands of troops from Russia and four other ex-Soviet nations began military exercises in southern Kazakhstan on Friday, the first of its kind for the newly formed NATO-style rapid-reaction force.

More than 7,000 troops gathered at the Matybulak training grounds for the maneuvers, which are expected to last two weeks, the Kazakh Defense Ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
You can read the full story at
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9B2UBOG0&show_article=1

Russian Military Exercises Underway

Courtesy of the Old Crow.

The following extract, taken from the Russian Ministry of Defence website, has been translated and submitted for information and interest by Old Crow. Date of extract 8 September. Note of interest: That's two large-ish scale Exercises that the Russians are running. Can't be short of cash, can they?

Operational-Strategic Exercise "Zapad-2009" ...

Today sees the beginning of Exercise Zapad-2009 which involves the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation together with those of the Republic of Belarus'. The Exercise will run between 8th and 29th of September and will be under the general direction of the Minister of Defence of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus' and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is the ultimate operational training measures by the Armed Forces of each nation in the Union for the year 2009.

The concept of the Exercise has been developed jointly by the General Staffs of the Armed Forces of Belarus' and the Russian Federation and bears an exclusively defensive character. It represents training by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus' and the Russian Federation in guaranteeing strategic stability in the Eastern European region.

Participation in the joint Exercise will involve:

Russian Federation Forces.. Military Direction Staffs; Detachments and units from the Moscow and Volga-Urals Military Districts; the Baltic Fleet; Air Force, Air Defence, and Airborne Forces command staffs, Rear Services command staffs and operational groups from federal executive functions.

Armed Forces of Republic of Belarus'.. Military Direction Staffs; Detachments and units from operational commands, operational groups from civil organisations, personnel and assets from Internal Security Forces, police, State Security etc.

In all, some 12.5 thousand service personnel will be involved. (Russia: 5-6 thousand; Belarus' 7-8 thousand) Up to 40 aircraft and up to 200 combat vehicles.

Russian Military to Conduct Exercise

Following extract taken from the front page of the Russian military journal Red Star dated 16 June 2009. Translated by "Old Crow."

Strategic-Operations training "Caucasus 2009" will take place in the North Caucasus Military District during the period 29 June to 6 July 2009. This is in accordance with the schedule for training / exercising by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. This event will be under the overall direction of the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, General of Army Nikolaj Makarov and will involve units of the North Caucasus MD).

NorthCom Exercise

Courtesy of Jack NeSmith and the Milcom newsgroup:

Charleston County's Radio Communications is participating in "DICE" (Department of Defense Interoperability Communications Exercise) from 1-5 June at the Mt Pleasant Army National Guard Armory.

The DICE is part of a multi-state communications exercise coordinated by DHS and USNORTHCOM (United States Northern Command, a joint military.[Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corp] command responsible for North America).

Texas, Arizona and New Jersey are also participating.

Charleston County's Sheriff's Office Command Post and Air Support Unit will also be participating. We will have our Amateur Radio folks working out of the EOC. They will be passing info to the state EOC, FEMA, local hospitals, etc.

The main objective is to test communications. radio, data (internet) and satellite. We will have our communications trailer, Sheriff's Office command post, state command post and several SCARNG communications vehicles at the armory.

We will be testing FMV (Full Motion Video) from F-16's out of McEntire Air National Guard Base in Columbia and the Sheriffs Office Helicopter The F-16's will be high enough to where it will not be noticeable. The F-16's will be flying on June 2 and June 4.

USS Blue Ridge Conducts SAR Exercise

Members of the amphibious command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) search and rescue boat crew look on as a search and rescue swimmer is lifted from the ocean during a training exercise. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew D. Jordan/Released)

Russians to Conduct MilOps in Greek Airspace

Reuters is reporting that the Russian will be conducting military operations in Greek airspace later this month.

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Russian aircraft carrier will conduct military exercises in Greek airspace later this month, the first such wargames to take place in the NATO member's area, Greece's Defence Ministry said on Friday.

The carrier Kuznetsov will operate southeast of the Greek island of Rhodes on Jan 3, 4, 8 and 10 and south of the island of Crete on Jan 11, it said.

See the rest of that report on the Reuters UK website at
http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc07/idUKTRE5012G320090102

Russian Navy exercises in the Mediterranean Sea

Courtesy of Costas Krallis in Greece and the UDXF newsgroup:

The following NOTAM was published yesterday on a greek forum. The exercices begin today, Janurary 3, 2008.

A2733/08 NOTAMN
Q) LGGG/QWELW/IV/NBO/W /000/280/3500N02600E200

A) LGGG

B) 0901030900

C) 0901161900

D) DATES AND TIMES AS ITEM E.

E) RUSSIAN NAVY AND AIRFORCE WILL MAKE A WITHOUT FIRING EXER WITHIN
ATHINAI FIR AS DESCRIBED BELOW:

1.- EXERCISE AREA (WITHOUT FIRING) : 65NM RAD 343000N 0280000E LIMITED
TO THE SOUTH BY ATHINAI/CAIRO FIR BOUNDARIES.
AWYS WITHIN THE SAID AREA AND KARPATHOS CTR WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY
THE ACTIVITIES.
VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-FL280.
DATES AND TIMES: JAN 03 04 0900-1900.

2.- EXERCISE AREA (WITHOUT FIRING): 65NM RAD 350000N 0283000E.
AWYS WITHIN THE SAID AREA AND RODOS TMA, KARPATHOS CTR WILL NOT BE
AFFECTED BY THE ACTIVITIES.
VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-FL280.
DATES AND TIMES: JAN 08 10 0900-1900.

3.- EXERCISE AREA (WITHOUT FIRING): 65NM RAD 343000N 0293000E LIMITED
TO THE EAST BY ATHINAI/NICOSIA FIR BOUNDARIES AND TO THE SOUTH BY
ATHINAI/CAIRO FIR BOUNDARIES.
AWYS WITHIN THE SAID AREA WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THE ACTIVITIES.
VERTICAL LIMITS: FL120-FL280.
DATE AND TIMES: JAN 09 0900-1900.

4.- EXERCISE AREA (WITHOUT FIRING): 65NM RAD 341500N 0240000E LIMITED
TO THE SOUTH BY ATHINAI/CAIRO AND ATHINAI/MALTA FIR BOUNDARIES.
AWYS WITHIN THE SAID AREA AND SOUDA MTMA WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THE
ACTIVITIES.
VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-FL280.
DATE AND TIMES: JAN 11 0900-1900.

5.- EXERCISE AREA (WITHOUT FIRING): 65NM RAD 360000N 0204000E LIMITED
TO THE SOUTH BY ATHINAI/MALTA FIR BOUNDARIES.
AWYS WITHIN THE SAID AREA AND KALAMATA MTMA, ANDRAVIDA MTMA WILL NOT
BE AFFECTED BY THE ACTIVITIES.
VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-FL280.
DATE AND TIMES: JAN 16 0900-1900.

6.- PROCEDURES FOR EXERCISE AIRCRAFT:

6.1.- EXERCISE AIRCRAFT WILL FLY VFR/VMC IN ACCORDANCE WITH ICAO
RULES AND PROCEDURES AS AMPLIFIED IN AIP-GREECE.

6.2.- EXERCISE AIRCRAFT WILL SUBMIT FLIGHT PLANS AND WILL BE IN
CONTACT WITH ATHINAI ACC ON EMERGENCY FREQ 121.5 MHZ.

6.3.- PRIOR COORDINATION WITH APPROPRIATE ATC UNITS IS REQUIRED IN
CASE EXERCISE ACFT EXPECT TO ENTER CONTROLLED AIRSPACE.

F) SFC

G) FL280

CREATED: 24 Dec 2008 10:25:00
SOURCE: LGGGYNYX

Integrated Antiterrorism Exercise Conducted in Norfolk

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman (SW) Shanika L. Futrell, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic

NORFOLK (NNS) -- Commander Navy Installations Command (CNIC), in coordination with Naval Station (NAVSTA) Norfolk, took part in Citadel Protect '08, an antiterrorism (AT) ashore/afloat exercise, Oct. 15-16.

"We are protecting capital assets," said Capt. Kelly Johnson, NAVSTA Norfolk executive officer. "Training and getting our Navy ready for a realistic situation by performing various exercises definitely ties into the CNO's vision."

The exercise's concept of operations gave the training team a chance to eliminate the ashore/afloat team by achieving unity within the operational environment.

"This exercise is designed to look at the gaps that exist and try to eliminate them," said Steve Murley, CNIC trainer.

The exercise only focused on the first step to a threat. Units participating were guided-missile destroyers USS Gonzalez (DDG 66) and USS Bulkeley (DDG 84), and NAVSTA Norfolk installation security from the Sewells Point Police precinct.

The objective of the exercise was to assess AT Navy Mission Essential Tasks (NMETS), and a broad spectrum of primary capabilities such as force integration and safety, and to introduce the position of the antiterrorism tactical watch officer (ATTWO).

The ATTWO is the eyes and the voice which actively tells other posts what to do and how to react to a situation through different methods of communication.

"The ships and everyone who is involved have Blackberry phones, force protection radios or beepers, [providing] the ATTWO and others involved a direct line of communication so that we can together fight the battle for antiterrorism," said Lt.j.g. Shane Jester, Sewells Point Police precinct ATTWO.

"Although we are only doing the first stage, there will be more training to follow in the future. We have to take the process one step at a time so the Navy does not leave any gaps that will make us vulnerable."

This exercise was the first of its type, led by CNIC, held on Naval Station (NAVSTA) Norfolk.

"These exercises have been held overseas in Bahrain, but this is the first formalized integration between the waterfront and shore installation working together here at NAVSTA," said Cmdr. Rick Cheeseman, commanding officer of USS Bulkeley.

Combined Task Force 152 Conducts Exercise Goalkeeper

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- Ships from Bahrain, the United Kingdom and the United States are conducting Exercise Goalkeeper in the Central and Southern Persian Gulf to train across the spectrum of Maritime Security Operations (MSO).

Led by Royal Navy Commodore Peter Hudson, commander, Combined Task Force (CTF) 152, the five-day exercise began Aug. 24 and seeks to ensure a lawful maritime order as well as improve relationships between regional countries.

"Exercise Goalkeeper provides coalition and regional navies an opportunity to fine tune their skills in conducting essential Maritime Security Operations," said Hudson.

In addition to familiarizing all forces with MSO, Goalkeeper provides participants an opportunity to exercise their abilities to locate and track various vessels, practice boarding techniques and work with the Bahraini Coast Guard.

Coalition units participating in the exercise include RBNS Al Fateh (PGGF 20), HMS Montrose (F 236) and USNS Catawba (T-ATF 168) as well as coalition maritime patrol aircraft.

Hudson explained the exercise's key focus is handling the command and control in locating and tracking specific vessels deemed to pose a threat to coalition nations in the Gulf region. During the exercise coalition teams will board the vessel and practice the procedures for handing them over to Coast Guard ships.

Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) conduct MSO in the region to help develop conditions for security in the maritime environment, which promotes stability and global prosperity. These operations complement the counterterrorism and security efforts of regional nations and seek to disrupt violent extremists' use of the maritime environment as a venue for attack or to transport personnel or weapons.

CMF has a common purpose and goal – to increase the security and prosperity of the region by working together for a better future.

Airmen set up communication lines for exercise in Croatia

by Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore, Medical Central and Eastern Europe Exercise Public Affairs
Tech. Sgt. Brett Olsen adjusts a modem April 29 at Divulje Training Base, Croatia. He is part of the forward team supporting Medical Central and Eastern Europe Exercise 2008, which 17 nations are participating in that runs May 2 through 15. The exercise focuses on mass-casualty training scenarios and humanitarian aid in response to crises situations. More than 400 multinationals are attending the exercise in support of the Partnership for Peace initiative. Sergeant Olsen is assigned to the 1st Combat Communications Squadron from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Kristin Ruleau)

DIVULJE TRAINING BASE, Croatia (AFPN) -- Members of the 1st Combat Communications Squadron based out of Ramstein Air Base, Germany, began arriving in late April into Croatia to prepare network and phone systems for participants of the Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe 2008 here.

The 1st CBCS Airmen linked the more than 400 multinational participants to the rest of the world for the U.S. European Command-sponsored exercise.

Croatian officials welcomed exercise participants and support members from 15 nations who began arriving here April 21 in preparation for the Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe 2008. The exercise is a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff regional/multilateral exercise sponsored by USEUCOM and hosted by Croatia this year in the spirit of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe 2008 brings participants together in a joint training and validation medical exercise aimed at the interoperability of multinational disaster response, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions.

"We're here to provide communication support to the participants of MEDCEUR," said 2nd Lt. Dan Casey, the 1st CBCS communications officer in charge of Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe 2008. His 15-man communication team brought all of the equipment they would need to set up services for a small base including an initial communications package and a satellite.

"When we arrived here, commercial Internet and Croatian phone lines were already in place," Lieutenant Casey said. "We had to establish a nonsecure Internet protocol routing network, a secure Internet protocol routing network and a defense switched network. You don't get those services through what was already here. The communications systems that were already in place would have had a hard time supporting the hundreds of exercise participants who will be arriving here."

The locally established systems provided a starting point for the 1st CBCS Airmen, but more communication infrastructure was needed to support the exercises.

"One really unique thing we are doing here is utilizing radio frequency to span more than six miles of airspace to (nearby) Laura Naval Air Station in order to provide nonsecure voice and data SIPRNET," said Staff Sgt. J.C. Rainey, a 1st CBCS systems integrator supervisor.

This achievement was done using the theater deployable communication suite.

Normally one RF module is used at a location. To provide the communications needed here; however, five RF "mods" were linked together, Sergeant Rainey said. "Linking together five at one time is not typical but was required in this situation since we have to provide services over such a long distance."

Providing this distance support has caused challenges to members of the 1st CBCS.

"The most challenging part is the six-and-a-half mile microwave link between the two points," Lieutenant Casey said. "As far as I know, we have never done this before in this type of environment. It took some time, but we made it work."

Despite the challenges the communications squadron Airmen had to overcome, they seem to have found this experience rewarding.

"It has been very rewarding to provide communication out here during this exercise to the different nations," the lieutenant said. "It has been a great experience."

Sergeant Rainey agreed, "I have enjoyed watching the camaraderie that happens in this type of environment. I've seen squadrons start integrating together, multinational relationships form and the export of good will."

US Navy to conduct exercise in SoCal

And for Milcom readers in the San Diego SoCal area:

According to an anonymous source the US Navy is going to conduct an exercise in the San Diego SoCal area soon. Keep an eye on the following frequencies for activity.

USN C2 Freqs
238.100 254.850 256.500 268.900 346.500 380.500 385.200 MHz

Link 11 Data (FM)
304.200 326.600 MHz

Spectrum Holes
258.675 284.550 MHz

Other Frequencies:
249.825 251.525 253.950 280.500 316.950 324.950 337.800 341.000 352.200 359.600 382.700 MHz

According to our anonymous source there will be red/green comms during this exercise. Time and date where NOT indicated.

U.S. Navy Strike Groups Exercise Capabilities In The Region

United States naval forces assigned to Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet, will begin several exercises in the Persian Gulf during November to demonstrate a wide range of capabilities, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief assistance.

Contingency planning helps prepare forces for real-world events that can happen unexpectedly. USS Wasp (LHD 1) began a crisis response exercise Nov. 1, involving amphibious, air and medical forces in the Persian Gulf.

Commander Task Force (CTF) 59 is leading the exercise, focusing on furthering the region's humanitarian and disaster response capability.

"The scenario is challenging but prepares us for a real-world event," said Cmdr. Jay Chambers, CTF 59 plans officer. "From the table-top discussions, which drew up plans for how our forces will assist, to turning those plans into action, this exercise allowed us to examine the best way to proceed, and to proceed quickly, with providing assistance to any requesting nation."

The exercise is designed to practice and evaluate the ships' ability to serve as "first responders" after a natural disaster. The five-day training exercise ensures 5th Fleet is capable of responding to any crisis in this region and is part of United States commitment to the people of the region.

"The purpose of the exercise is to continually improve the 5th Fleet skills in completing complex missions that require capabilities broader than one ship or unit," said Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander, U.S. 5th Fleet.

This exercise tests the ability to rapidly flow personnel and supplies from the sea to an affected area within the first 72 hours, similar to U.S. Navy assistance for natural disasters during the Indonesia tsunami, relief efforts for the Pakistan earthquake, and most recently the volcano eruption in Yemen.

Crisis response exercises also develop the capabilities of military personnel to respond to hazards affecting maritime infrastructure. For instance, a problem on an oil platform could cause an oil spill that, if not contained, could cause follow-on problems to the environment or other infrastructures.

An important part of this exercise will be to test oil spill response capabilities, which will involve a spill response and initial clean-up.

In addition to the Wasp training, Enterprise Carrier Strike Group and Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group are also operating and training in the region. Multiple strike groups are capable of executing a broad range of operations.

"Naval forces deployed here contribute to building stronger relationships that in turn help underwrite security and stability," said Cosgriff. "Counter piracy operations off the coast of Somalia demonstrate our commitment to keeping sea lanes open for legitimate commerce and shipping."

Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water and includes the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean. This expanse includes three critical waterways: Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz and Strait of Bab al Mandeb.

Maritime security operations help set the conditions for security and stability throughout the region. Naval forces conduct maritime operations under international maritime conventions to ensure security and safety in international waters so that commercial shipping and fishing can occur safely in the region.