FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. — While many may know the installation is the home of the Army’s military intelligence training, the fort’s unique environment encompasses 946 square miles of restricted airspace – a key component to the national defense mission where military units from across the county conduct joint training.
One of the long-time users of the restricted airspace is the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center (AATTC) from the 139th Airlift Wing, Missouri Air National Guard.
In 1983, the Air Force and Army signed a joint use agreement which allows Air Force active, Reserve and National Guard use of the airfield as needed, said Carol Thompson, Libby Army Airfield (LAAF) manager, here.
The AATTC trains aircrews from the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, Air Mobility Command, Air Combat Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, the Marine Corps and 18 allied nations. They offer seven different courses, but only two – the Advanced Tactics Aircrew Course (ATAC) and the Advanced Airlift Mobility Intelligence Course (AAMIC) – conduct a portion of each course at Fort Huachuca.
“We average 11 times per year conducting training at Fort Huachuca,” said Col. James Couch, AATTC commandant. “Most of our classes held at the fort are less than a week.”
The two-week advanced tactics course begins with one week in St. Joseph, Missouri, including graduate-level academics in subjects like radar missiles; combat mission planning, communication and integration; and combat offload. Week one also includes two flying sorties with the first flight including training on missile warning systems and practicing defensive maneuvers. The second sortie is low-level navigation with an A-10 close-air support mission and two airdrops.
Meanwhile the mobility intelligence course is developing intelligence operators to support the global mobility Air Force operations in the full spectrum of modern combat. Students spend two weeks in St. Joseph completing graduate-level intelligence courses focused on advanced analysis, aircraft defensive systems, emerging threats and mission planning analysis before deploying to LAAF with the ATAC aircrews.
The Arizona phase of their integrated training encompasses six sorites that are extremely accelerated and include air tactics training on low level navigation, dissimilar air combat, hostile environment and a formation flight.
Fort Huachuca’s restricted air space provides exposure to high-altitude, desert and mountainous environments for the most realistic combat training and qualifies as Air Mobility Command Integrated Mission Sortie Levels 2 and 3.
Once integrated, the mobility intelligence course students conduct mission planning, briefing, debriefing and report writing while participating in the operations, tactics and intelligence interface. This also gives them the experience of flying on tactical mobility Air Force sorties to gain real world experience.
“The trip out to Arizona allows us to simulate a [combat] deployment,” said Maj. Matthew Cotter, AAMIC course director. “Students in AAMIC have the opportunity to do their research, brief the aircrews on the mission, and fly with the crews to understand what they go through.”
The wide-open airspace, low-level desert, mountains, dry climate, dirt runways and the military-use-only agreements in the surrounding areas provide pilots with a safe training environment like the real-world conditions they will operate in during deployment or combat, he explained.
“Arizona is a natural selection for conducting our flight trainings,” Cotter said. “On average, newer aircrew members have not flown in dry climates, so this is the perfect location to expose future leaders to this unique environment.”
While the Army’s intelligence professionals at Fort Huachuca are not currently involved in this training program, Couch and Carter look forward to exploring a more integrated training mission with the Army and believe it would help strengthen the joint force partnership.
“If there’s a way to make us better and a way to make the partnership and joint fight better, I’m all for putting in the hard work to see it happen,” Cotter said.
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Fort Huachuca is home to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Army Signal Command and more than 48 supported tenants representing a diverse, multiservice population. Our unique environment encompasses 946 square miles of restricted airspace and 2,500 square miles of protected electronic ranges, key components to the national defense mission.
Located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about 15 miles north of the border with Mexico, Fort Huachuca is an Army installation with a rich frontier history. Established in 1877, the Fort was declared a national landmark in 1976.
We are the Army’s Home. Learn more at https://home.army.mil/huachuca/.
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