"Plymouth native emulates enemy in Air Force war games" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, February 23, 2013
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — At supersonic speed, the 32-year-old Plymouth native climbed high over the Nevada desert on a mission for the fictitious enemy nation of Coyote. Often on such occasions, Air Force Major Scott Snider’s comrades fire up the Russian national anthem beforehand as a rallying cry against the United States.
But Snider is no enemy of America. Quite the opposite.
His job is to train fellow pilots to prevail in mortal combat against Russian and Chinese-designed aircraft and missiles. To accomplish that, he gamely plays the enemy target, replicating what a future foe might do in real combat.
You SEE WHERE WE ARE GOING, right?
It is all part of a little-publicized overhaul of how the US Air Force prepares for war after a decade of dropping bombs on terrorists hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan and providing air cover for troops fighting in Iraq....
And the Globe tried to slip it by you on a Slow Saturday, the slowest sales and least read day of the week.
Air Force officials stress they are not preparing to confront Russia or China, but are readying for the types of weapons those countries have developed and sold to other countries. Russia has supplied high performance warplanes and missiles to potential US adversaries such as Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
And by confronting them we will be forced to confront Russia and China, who will come to their defense.
I think it has already begun, it just isn't yet called that by the agenda-pushing press.
Russia is also developing a new stealth fighter, while China recently tested a prototype for an indigenously manufactured stealth fighter....
Let the "games" begin!
Training involved creating a dangerous fictitious world, with real-life similarities to global hot spots, as a backdrop. Snider fought for the belligerent nation of Coyote, with its five major cities stretched across the western half of the vast training range. Coyote’s military was threatening the neighboring nation of Caliente, a US ally.
Meanwhile, the smaller nation of Jackal, aligned with Caliente, was wedged between them. Jackal was rich in mineral wealth and Coyote wanted it — and was supporting a well-armed insurgency to help get it.
So who is who?
Real-life Air Force pilots, brought here from bases around the country and overseas to train, were confronted with challenges.
One day they had to set up a no-fly zone over Coyote to prevent it from launching an all-out assault on Caliente. On another they had to take out its communications facilities and sophisticated network of anti-aircraft missiles. In another exercise the threat was posed by Scud missiles set to be launched at Caliente’s population centers. On a different day they had to take out Coyote’s chemical weapons manufacturing capability, as well as the scientist in charge of the program.
Related: No-Fly Post
So Coyote must be Syria and Caliente must be Israel.
The desert floor was dotted with targets: concrete structures in the shape of aircraft; makeshift urban complexes to simulate populated areas; and terrorist training camps. There were also offensive missile batteries — some stationary, others mounted on mobile trailers — like they would find in the real world.
The simulation is a shock to pilots who have been bombing lightly armed Taliban guerillas or terrorist safe houses with virtually no resistance....
So how did the "game" go?
Captain Geoff Cohan, 27, of Buffalo, experienced that difficulty firsthand on the opening day of the two-week exercise last month. He was flying aboard a command center known as the Airborne Warning and Control System, a modified jumbo jet with a large radar dome on top that manages the blue forces in battle.
“The first mission that we flew last Monday was really rough,” he said. “We did not fare very well. We died.”
Cohan has twice served in the skies supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but said this has been a whole new experience.
“We’ve never seen as many aircraft airborne at the same time fighting in the same scenario,” he said.
Sounds like a Star Wars movie.
The prospect of having to employ what many pilots are learning here may not be as remote as it once seemed, given the ongoing tensions in places such as Iran or Syria, which have well-armed air forces.
Readers, they are PREPARING YOU for the EVENTUALITY!!
Both have “a very robust air defense system and for the most part [are] comprised of former Soviet- and Russian-produced” weapons, said Sam Clemens, of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, who helps plan the strategy of the so-called aggressor forces here. “We hope we will never get in a big shooting war again but we can’t bury our heads in the sand and say that’s not going to happen.”
Because they ARE PLANNING ON IT HAPPENING!
--more--"
