US, Canadian Forces Complete Green Flag Little Rock Exercise

Airman from the Air Force’s 34th Combat Training Squadron and the U.S. Army collaborated with coalition forces from Canada during the joint forcible entry and airborne assault training to kick off exercise Green Flag Little Rock 20-03 (GFLR 20-03) at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and in Alexandria, Louisiana.

GFLR 20-03 was held in conjunction with exercise JointReadiness Training Center 20-3, the Army’s final certification event beforeunits are deemed ready to deploy or assume a ready force posture.

This joint live-training tactical exercise focused on combatairlift and airdrop operations, interoperability with joint and internationalpartners, as well as survival, evasion, resistance and escape.

The desired training objective was to simulate an airfieldassault, airfield opening and subsequent follow-on sustainment support in whichparticipants train together to ensure efficient interoperability for potentialfuture operations, Newman said.

“We’re trying to give our crews combat-like experiencebefore they deploy by increasing exposure to working with an external commandand control agency,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Phillip Newman, 34th CTSdirector of operations.

In addition to promoting interoperability between the U.S.Army, U.S. Air Force and international partners, this exercise focused on theability to operate cohesively in an austere environment and being able torapidly assemble forces in response to crises.

“The joint force aspect improves everyone involved,” Newmansaid. “It allows the U.S. Army users to become familiar with differentregulations the U.S. Air Force has on preparing cargo before it can be loadedon an aircraft. From a planning perspective, it allows U.S. Air Force aircrewto better understand how important the training is to increase cohesiveness andlethality.”

Exercises like this improve the process of getting a ground force moved into an area as rapidly as possible so they can build a combat capability in the objective area. The GFLR 20-03 and JRTC 20-3 ensure the development of ready, willing and capable partners to collectively address global security challenges.

“This training allows our crews to be immersed in a scenariothat an individual base or squadron can’t organically create,” said U.S. AirForce Lt. Col. Thomas Joyner, 34th CTS commander. “We aren’t going to get thesame level of players, threat systems, or the joint effort aspect obtained in astandard exercise. GFLR is a much more robust and enriched training environmentfor all participants.”

This exercise also included partners from the U.S. Army; 921st Contingency Response Squadron of Travis Air Force Base (AFB), California; 321st Contingency Response Squadron at McConnell AFB, Kansas; six C-130J Super Hercules from the 41st and 61st Airlift Squadrons from Little Rock AFB, Arkansas; four C-17 Globemaster III’s from the 62nd Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; two C-17 Globemaster III’s from the 437th Airlift Wing at JB Charleston, South Carolina; and two C-130J Super Hercules from the Royal Canadian Air Force.