Operation Joint Thunder: JCAS training at Fort Sill

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Army's Center for the Integration of Joint Effects, is a premier joint training post. It has the advantages of troop units and the Army-Marine schoolhouse eager to train joint close air support (JCAS); Air Force and Navy squadrons in close proximity; open airspace and large impact areas that facilitate range safety requirements; and the joint fires and effects training system (JFETS). In May, the 212th Field Artillery Brigade, III Corps Artillery, Fort Sill, leveraged those advantages to lead a weeklong JCAS exercise at Fort Sill.

Operation Joint Thunder marked the beginning of a new era of joint fires and effects training at Fort Sill. After a nine-year hiatus, joint aircraft, once again, provided CAS while cannon and rocket systems simultaneously massed against targets on Fort Sill's West Range. The live-fire exercise was the capstone event following eight months of planning, coordination and rehearsals. It included 13 units from nine military installations and four branches of the armed services.

During the live fire, strike aircraft dropped more than 88,000 pounds of ordnance, 155-mm artillery fired more than 400 rounds, and a multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) unit fired more than 60 rockets.

Joint Participants. The strike aircraft came from the Naval Strike Squadron VFN 201 out of Fort Worth, Texas, while the Air Force's 3d Air Support Operations Center provided forward air controllers (FACs). With JCAS at Fort Sill, Navy aircraft were able to drop live ordnance with a 30-minute round-trip flight vice the six-hour round trip flights they had been accustomed to.

Scout-Observers from the 2d Battalion, 14th Marines (Reserves), Oklahoma City, participated as well as elements of the 212th Field Artillery Brigade and the 18th Field Artillery Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

These joint assets massed effects in support of a maneuver force attacking a contemporary operational environment (COE) enemy in high-intensity conflict. The amount of ordnance and the total number of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines taking part in the exercise made it the largest at Fort Sill in recent memory.

Training Goals. The exercise accomplished four major training goals.

1. It massed cannon, rocket and CAS fires simultaneously with high and low CAS engagement and proactive and reactive suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) supported by timely and accurate counterfires.

2. The exercise conducted onward movement and integration operations and live fire with a light artillery unit conducting airborne assault operations integrated with heavy FA brigade operations. In the first airborne operation on Fort Sill in more than 10 years, C Battery, 1st Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment (Airborne) (C/1-321st FAR), 18th Field Artillery Brigade, initiated Operation Joint Thunder. The battery dropped two M198 howitzers followed by artillery paratroopers onto Snow Ridge Drop Zone (DZ) and fired 12 missions from the DZ, among other missions during the exercise. The Proud Americans, 6-32 FA, 212th FA Brigade, provided rocket fires, focusing on both planned and reactive SEAD and counterfire.

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3. Operation Joint Thunder digitally integrated all command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ([C.sup.4]ISR) and fire support systems. This included conducting digital and voice sensor-to-shooter missions.

In addition to the "boots on the ground" training, Operation Joint Thunder integrated simulations from Fort Sill's Battle Lab using the Sim[C.sup.4]I Interchange Module for Plans, Logistics and Exercises called "SIMPLE." SIMPLE integrated all simulations, collected exercise data and drove an interactive tactical scenario.

4. A final goal was to provide an operational scenario and system to test selected new fire support systems, primarily target acquisition (TA) systems. This enabled Soldiers using the latest TA assets to verify target location and accuracy against known data, providing immediate feedback on the systems' capabilities.

Also, C/1-321 FA accomplished the first tactical firing of the modular artillery charge (MAC) at Fort Sill. This new propellant reduces the unit's logistical requirements by as much as 40 percent as compared to the standard tube artillery propellants.

During the exercise, Major General Kenneth J. Quinian, Commandant of the Joint Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, was an observer. He said, "I think the joint community is learning what a national treasure Fort Sill is as a training location where you have air-space, range facilities and tactical units. When people find out about the advantages for all our nation's services to train jointly, they'll make this an event that occurs more often."

Without a doubt, Operation Joint Thunder demonstrated Fort Sill is a Joint Fires and Effects Training Center.

MAJ John R. Watson, Brigade S3

212th FA Brigade, Fort Sill, OK

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