US soldiers train with Stinger missile system

U.S. soldiers from 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, conducted Stinger missile familiarization with Rakkasan soldiers assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, February 4-7, 2019.

The Stinger missile system is a man-portable surface-to-airmissile system (MANPADS), which entered military service in 1981, and providesa lightweight short-range air defense capability against low-altitude airbornetargets. It is intended to be employed in an expeditionary manner; particularlyuseful in restricted terrain and heavy vegetation. The system and itsassociated capabilities are important to a maneuver unit, as they provide thecapability to track and destroy airborne threats such as fixed- or rotary-wingaircraft, and some unmanned aircraft systems.

The air defenders teamed up with Rakkasan soldiers in an effort to create a shared understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the air defense platforms, inform them of the proper employment of the systems, and build the team prior to the brigade combat team’s rotation to the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in March of this year.

Not only was the training beneficial for Rakkasan soldiersas they conducted virtual training in the Kinnard Mission Training Complex, butit also helped to build air and missile defense capacity for multi-domainoperations, ensuring that air defense forces are trained and ready.

The training consisted of a visual aircraft identificationportion, where soldiers were trained and tested on their ability to identifyvarious types of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft without the use of radar oradvanced optics, followed by hands-on training on a virtual Stinger system.During the virtual training, the soldiers were required to detect and engagetarget aircraft.

“The infantrymen and scouts had an opportunity to get sometrigger time in the KMTC,” said Feithen. “After familiarization on the systems,the soldiers were able to find and destroy targets. Having soldiers that aren’tair defenders but who are trained on the MANPADS helps to augment the limitedair defense soldiers attached to the BCT.”

As the BCT prepares to deploy to the fictional country ofAtropia during JRTC, it’s not uncommon for enablers from all Army components toconduct training with the unit they’ll support prior to the rotation.Conventional forces, various combat service support units and specialoperations forces frequently augment a BCT. These types of trainingopportunities mirror the supported and supporting relationships that may occurduring combat or operational deployments, and ensure that the Army is ready tofight.