U.S. Air Force Reserve Command crew landed a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft on a highway in Wyoming this week.
The U.S. Air Force say that the highway closed early in the morning to ensure the aircrew could safely practice recovering personnel without access to a runway within simulated enemy territory.
“The Rally in the Rockies exercise ensures the Air Force Reserve and National Guard can provide an instantaneous surge capacity across most mission sets to strengthen our active duty counterparts,” said Maj. Nick Hainsfurther, 913th Operations Support Squadron pilot and lead exercise planner.
“With the help of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, we were able to successfully demonstrate our versatile combat airlift capabilities.”
The 913th Airlift Group based out of Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, served as the lead planning unit in the mobility-focused exercise.
“Reserve Citizen Airmen crafted the scenario and aligned logistics to ensure each unit could focus on training. In order to effectively accomplish combat operations, current scenarios assume traditional bases will be immediately threatened. The exercise required various units to come together to deliver cargo, paratroopers, artillery, task force resupply and to conduct personnel extraction. The scenario was designed to test the interoperability of Reserve and National Guard units to execute Multi-Capable Airmen missions in challenging, contested scenarios.”
“This is an exercise evolution of the Rally in the Valley 2020 exercise conducted in West Virginia,” said Maj. Christopher Acs, 327th Airlift Squadron pilot and exercise planner.
“Our efforts will prepare Reserve and National Guard units to execute at the speed and range required to take on near-peer adversaries. Additional training included combat airlift as well as multi-capable mobility Airmen who are able to refuel and re-arm aircraft in austere locations with minimal support.”
I see the USAF special operations command is looking to convert MC-130s into float planes or flying boats, to aid access to remote Pacific islands. That’d be a sight to see.
Oh to see a “Fat Albert” with arm bands on!
Repair the runways and taxi ways best we can and carry on. There are RE units that specialize in this.
Not ideal but any nation with fixed airfields is vulnerable, including our potential enemies.
Well good luck landing on the M25!
We will be well insulated from any issues of that nature by then😂
Most of the M25 looks like a bombing run has already been done on it!
Bombing the M25would probably be an improvement, we will be phoning asking when they can come finish the job!
I would guess the RAF have plans to disperse/operate from unused military airfields, which could be set up quite quickly – Lyneham, Coltishall, Scampton (soon to be closed) etc. Always an option to operate from civil airports -EGCC, EGKK, EGLL etc etc. Taking out runways for long periods of time is quite difficult.
I still think we need to keep the c130j Aircraft it’s a great tactical aircraft and we will defo feel the loss once gone, also can’t the Herc do missions the Atlas can’t? if so that’s another capability gone. Also is 22 A400s enough? Will or should we order more? Seems a tiny fleet for a country like UK that permanently has missions globaly and troops and gear deploying permenantly, As we get far more use of our millitary assets than most other nations. There’s 11,000 millitary personnel deployed globally now for example. Germany has more than double they Ordered… Read more »