AMC’s largest exercise, Mobility Guardian 2019 begins

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  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

Mobility Guardian 2019, Air Mobility Command’s premier exercise, will be hosted by the 92nd and 141st Air Refueling Wings located at Fairchild Air Force Base, Spokane, Washington, from Sept. 8-28.

Mobility Guardian 2019 is set to be AMC’s largest full-spectrum readiness exercise to date. Forty-six U.S. aircraft will join aircraft from 29 international partners, along with more than 4,000 U.S. and international Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps aviators.

A range of airframes, including the KC-10 Extender, KC-135 Stratotanker, C-5 Super Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III and C-130H/J Hercules, will take part in the training. To accommodate the array of large aircraft, exercise grounds will span beyond Fairchild Air Force Base to Selah Creek within the Yakima Training Center, Washington; the Mountain Home Range Complex, Idaho; Moses Lake Grant County Airport and several other training areas in the region.

"Unmatched rapid global mobility exists because of the ready and resilient Airmen who execute the mission day in and day out," said Gen. Maryanne Miller, AMC commander. "Training exercises such as Mobility Guardian are critical to ensuring our Airmen are able to keep AMC’s promise to always be there for those who depend on us, both today and tomorrow."

The exercise will emulate the contested, degraded and operationally-limited environments mobility forces face now and in preparation for the future. Scenarios were designed to elicit a real-world feel while focusing on all four AMC core competencies: the diverse missions of airlift, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation and global air mobility support. Airmen will be challenged to improve their skills in forcible entry, airfield seizure, strategic deterrence and humanitarian relief operations.

"The future of warfare will be increasingly joint," said Lt. Col. Joseph Monaco, Mobility Guardian exercise director. "This exercise is an unparalleled opportunity to develop joint-minded Airmen who can integrate seamlessly with Soldiers, Sailors and Marines to compete and, if necessary, win amidst great power adversaries."

Mobility Guardian is about strengthening partnerships and improving together as an integrated team. Interoperability between U.S. forces and international partners will be developed throughout the exercise by testing forces against threats faced in the current fight and future, higher-end conflicts.

Aeromedical evacuation of simulated patients will be a prime test of that interoperability.

"At Mobility Guardian, we intend to challenge our aeromedical evacuation force to initiate a Theater Aeromedical Evacuation System and transmit the casualty flow in a near-peer type environment," said Lt. Col. Caroline Mendoza, lead aeromedical evacuation planner. "They will be challenged with massive casualty flow and complex clinical situations where we will be dependent on our total-force and interoperable partners to meet the patient demand signal."

The exercise will also test more than a year of deliberate logistics planning for the reception, staging, onward movement and integration of a joint force deploying from across the globe.

"The logistical requirements to support AMC’s largest and longest exercise to date has been a monumental challenge in and of itself," said Maj. Jason Krazer, lead logistician. "Over 300 logistics planners from across the AMC Staff and other major commands, Fairchild AFB, 81 total force wings and joint partners have spent countless hours ensuring the flow of forces and equipment to and from the exercise locations will meet the demands for high-end full spectrum readiness training."

Mobility Guardian is set to take place every two years. The first exercise was held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, in July and August of 2017.