Eighth Army Soldiers attend Electronic Warfare Professional Development

K-16, Sungnam, South Korea --Eighth Army Soldiers attended an Electronic Warfare Professional Development (EWPD) hosted by 2-2 Assault Helicopter Battalion (AHB) at K-16, Sungnam, South Korea, Oct. 15.

The purpose of this event was to provide Eighth Army Soldiers an opportunity to observe Aviation Electronic Warfare Countermeasure systems on assault helicopters, such as AH-64, UH-60, CH-47 and OH-58.

Sgt. Maurice Erickson, an electronic warfare specialist said, "EWPD is important to our community as we get all together and conduct training, we become professional. If we are not constantly engaged in our profession then we lose some of those skills, so this professional development that we conduct kind of enforces that training for us."

EWPD helps to sustain and improve electronic warfare skills within the EW community to be ready to "Fight Tonight" and train key elements for upcoming theater exercises.

The EWPD provided Aviation Survivability Equipment training focusing on equipment such as Common Missile Warning System, Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures Set, and RADAR Signal Detecting Set.

The day consisted of classroom training followed by hands-on training of the systems on the aircraft. A total of 35 soldiers attended the training session, which included 2nd Infantry Division and Eighth Army Electronic Warfare personnel, pilots, safety, mission planners and spectrum personnel.

"The class was good. We got the tactical operations and aviation mission survivability, and our focus was how Electronic Warfare was conducted in the Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) and how we mingled and deal with the aviation survivability equipment," Erickson said.

After the classroom portion was complete, hands-on training was conducted to ensure the proficiency on loading procedures and system configurations which was conducted by Sgt. Erickson.

"It was excellent. It is good everybody got together to understand the capabilities and limitations across the board from different entities within U.S. Army," Eighth Army Electronic Warfare Chief Lt. Col. Jorge Guzman said. "So it is an opportunity to bring people together and learn from one each other."

By attending to EWPD, Eighth Army Soldiers are ready to "Fight Tonight," while investing and enhancing Soldier skills to strengthen our Army.