Weapons School conducts air mobility exercise Published May 20, 2011 By 2nd. Lt. Kenneth Lustig Nellis Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- The U.S. Air Force Weapons School conducted a large-scale exercise over the Nevada Test and Training Range May 18. The school's Mobility Air Forces Exercise, or MAFEX, simulated a major airlift operation to seize a landing zone inside enemy territory. The complex operation involved Air Force and Army units from around the U.S., including C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, fighters, tankers, and reconnaissance aircraft and ground units. Its phases simulated entering a defended airspace, establishing air superiority, countering ground threats, and then deploying an airborne force to seize an access point for follow-on ground operations. Lt. Col. Chris Collette, commander of the weapons school's C-17 squadron, said the exercise tested students' ability to apply what they've learned from the school's challenging curriculum. "The overall goal of the weapons school is to create weapon systems experts who can plan missions, execute them, and then instruct others on how to do it," the colonel said. "Our mantra is 'build, teach, and lead.' "What we're executing in MAFEX is called a 'joint forcible entry.' Our primary customer is the Army - we use our air mobility forces to get their units into combat. MAFEX challenges our students to do just that, with some fairly big tactical problems thrown their way that they have to overcome," Colonel Collette explained. "After learning what they take away from this, we want our students to go back to their units and make them more effective, too," he said. Capt. Scott Johnson, a C-17 student assigned to the 14th Airlift Squadron at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., described some of the obstacles the exercise presented. "Our C-17s went out and joined a formation that was 15 miles long," he said. "We dealt with real-world problems like severe weather - thunderstorms and high winds - as well as scenario problems like simulated threats and integrating tons of units. "When you're working with such a large and mixed formation of aircraft, you have a lot of things that make it difficult. For instance, when you have C-17's flying with C-130's, you have a speed difference. They have to keep different spacing because of the size difference," he explained. Captain Johnson said the challenge offered its participants many insights. "It brings us all together. You get to know each other's capabilities. Working with so many different systems and units, you learn what is and isn't a silly question. You learn to speak each others' language," he said. MAFEX was orchestrated in main by the weapons school's 12 C-17 and C-130 students, all experienced instructor pilots whose training will reach post-graduate level during the six months they spend at the school. Although instructors help students as needed and a colonel oversees the exercise as air mission commander, Colonel Collette said the students do nearly all of the "heavy lifting" in preparation for the exercise. "We put our students right in the seat, and they do it all," he said. "We teach a methodology of thinking. We teach them to take a problem, break it down, incorporate others to solve the problem, and integrate solutions so that they carry forward to future operations. "They must be critical thinkers. They are problem solvers," Colonel Collette added. Capt. Bret Echard, a C-130 student from the 41st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., described the weapons school course that MAFEX is part of as a "leadership course disguised as a tactics course. "The academics are designed to teach you the 'nuts and bolts' of your system - to make you an expert," he explained. "Then you go fly it. Then they add in how to mission plan and how to integrate with other units, and you carry that out. "It's a building block system. By the time you're done, you know all about your piece of the pie and what all the other pieces do as well. You can integrate it, make a plan that will actually work, and lead it," Captain Echard said. "Today we planned a mission involving 10 different airframes and a number of ground units. You can imagine the differences and challenges integrating all of those into one operation," he said. "That's really what we do here. We take all these different capabilities and put them together to achieve one objective - to get the mission done."
