Cope North

An RAAF contingent of some 300 personnel traveled to Guam, drawn from several of the Air Force’s Force Element Groups (FEGs); Air Combat Group, Air Lift Group, Combat Support Group, as well as the Surveillance Response Group.

Between them, they dispatched to Guam six, 1SQN Super Hornets, one 2SQN Wedgetail, a 37SQN C-130H and the Air Force’s 381st Expeditionary Combat Support Squadron.

The exercise, held between February 13 and 24, tested aircrew and personnel with a range of scenarios from simulated air combat to Humanitarian and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.

Australian Aviation spoke with representatives from all four RAAF units engaged in Cope North 2012, who provided the following overview of the exercise’s goals and lessons.

The Exercise Director

Heading the RAAF deployment to Guam was GPCAPT Geoff Harland, OC 82WG who also acted RAAF Exercise Director, in addition to his role as planner the morning ‘wave’.

He describes the process: ‘We were flying with aggressors from Red Flag Alaska, out of Elmendorf, and they’re designed and trained to be able to test us.

We started off with basic fighter manoeuvring (BFM), and differential air combat training, flying with different aircraft: we flew against the Japanese, against the US, that was the initial couple of days, and then starting from there we went into a large force employment phase of the exercise, and during that phase we increased the intensity and complexity as we went along.

We started off with simpler missions, and by the end of it we had more complex, deep strike, multi axis missions where it becomes a much more difficult proposition to plan and execute’

Overseas deployments to Cope North 2012 also an important part of the Super Hornet’s attainment of Initial Operating Capability, (IOC), conferred when the Air Force is satisfied the F model Hornet has achieved a minimum level of combat readiness.

The ultimate goal is Full Operating Capability, but as GPCAPT Harland explains, “FOC isn’t just about the platform, it’s about the aircrew, it’s about the maintenance personnel, and their ability to be able to generate air combat capability, or air power if you like, and these exercises are really central to that. For us to go out and have confidence that we can get the jets airborne and operate the jets in a realistic environment and prove we can safely and effectively operate to meet our military aims.”

For GPCAPT Harland emphasized the different focus of an exercise like Cope North when compared to Red Flag, the large scale simulated air combat exercise held in Nevada and Alaska. He said that while Cope North lacks the ground threat of Red Flag, it does offer outstanding training value and, just as importantly, invaluable engagement opportunities with Pacific allies, Japan and the US. Cope North also places greater emphasis on the integration of different nations’ air forces, and enabling them to conduct joint combat air operations as part of multilateral coalitions.

As for the performance of the Super Hornet during the exercise, GPCAPT Harland was full of praise. “It was brilliant. We hit all our marks there. We managed to deploy all the jets without issue, we operated all of our jets and we met our sorties while we were over there.”

2 SQN

The Boeing Wedgetail, as operated by Williamtown based 2SQN, was one of three dedicated AEW&C types used in the exercise, the others being USAF E-3C Sentries and JASDF E-2C Hawkeyes.

WGCDR Paul Carpenter is the newly arrived Commanding Officer of 2SQN, having transferred from the Orion community at the end of last year, when planning for 2SQN’s participation in Cope North 2012 was begun.

Deploying this technologically complex aircraft over 5000 km from its home base involved much pre-planning.

“Guam was the first in terms of working with the USAF,” says WGCDR Carpenter. “It was our first deployment to Guam itself and a lot of preparation was involved for the exercise administration, working out where we were going to be operating from, and getting access to the support equipment.”

Fortunately, the Wedgetail presents few logistical challenges, despite its complexity: “The Wedgetail deploys with a fairly conventional support in terms of maintenance, spares and logistics, administration and operations.

One additional thing that we have is our Mission Support System (MSS): because the Wedgetail employs some fairly sophisticated equipment, we need an associated MSS for that as well. Our MSS consists of a computers and other hardware that is used to prepare for each mission, so we need a bit of space to set that up.”

And vast though Anderson AB is, ramp space remains at a premium, a factor that continues to limit the amount of aircraft able to participate in the exercise.

A notable first was chalked up during the exercise by 2SQN when the Wedgetail became the first widebodied aircraft in the RAAF to be air-refueled by the USAF, tanking from a KC-135.

And in much the same way as 1SQN and its Super Hornets, 2SQN used Cope North 2012 to further develop its own systems, procedures and techniques leading up to the Wedetail’s IOC.

As important for the squadron was establishing productive relationships with Pacific air arms. To that end, 2SQN E-7s flew Cope North missions with USAF E-3 crewmembers onboard, the aim being, in the words of WGCDR Carpenter, to enhance interoperability.

‘It’s what we need to build because we’re a C2 platform- Command and Control, we’re going to be in the centre of the information flow, so we need to be able to communicate with other agencies so that interoperability is a huge part of our focus at the moment as we progress towards IOC.

“The great thing about Guam was it gave us an opportunity to work with large force elements, controlling multiple formations of dissimilar aircraft from other nations which was a huge training advantage for us.”

“It’s what we need to build because we’re a C2 platform – command and control, we’re going to be in the centre of the information flow, so we need to be able to communicate with other agencies, so that interoperability is a huge part of our focus at the moment, as we progress towards IOC. The great thing about Guam was it gave us a large force element opportunity because we were out there controlling multiple formations of dissimilar aircraft from other nations and that was a huge training advantage for us.”

Cope North 2012 marks the start of a Wedgetail world tour of sorts, with one 2SQN Wedgetail set to take part in Red Flag at Elmendorf AB, Alaska later in the year, while another participates, simultaneously, in the annual RimPac exercises in Hawaii.

WGCDR Carpenter is especially enthusiastic about cementing 2SQN’s working relationship with the 962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron, who operate the E-3 out of Elmendorf AB. “We got some fantastic feedback from [the USAF AEW&C community], they’re really happy with the job we’re doing, also impressed with the capability we have and we’ve established relationships that we’ll continue to grow in Alaska.”

As of press time, it had just been announced the Red Flag bound aircraft will, at the conclusion of the exercise, travel to RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, for an international airshow. WGCDR Carpenter acknowledges the new aircraft is getting something of a world tour.

“We’re certainly giving it a good workout. And we’re very conscious to ensure that it’s graduated and controlled and that we don’t take on too much. We have to remember that we’re a pre-IOC aircraft and we’ve got a number of milestones to reach. But I’m certainly happy with the way it’s tracking at the moment.”

37 SQN

Richmond based C-130H operators, 37SQN, committed a single Hercules (A97-007) to Cope North 2012. The aircraft was heavily utilised, performing air drops and air land operations during the HADR exercise on a simulated refugee camp, set up in the north of Guam during the first week of the exercise.

37 SQN then participated in the air combat phase of Cope North, forming part of packages engaged in air drop or insertions.

The squadron’s aim was to maximise training opportunities and develop greater levels of familiarization with JSDF and USAF units, particularly those engaged in airlift and HADR.

SQNLDR Ken Rogers is the Executive Officer of 37SQN, and he outlined the factors driving greater interoperability between 37SQN and its partner unit during Cope North 2012, the USAF’s 36th Airlift Squadron of Yokota, Japan.

“2011 was a very big year for us to provide humanitarian assistance, And going back over the last 10-15 years, Australia has been involved in many humanitarian assistance efforts from Banda Aceh 2004 onwards to Sumatra Assist and Christchurch, so it’s a burgeoning capability that we’re trying to gain a better training handle on, so we’re better prepared for future operations.”

Since the US is heavily committed to humanitarian missions in the region, harmonizing procedures with fellow regional airlift squadrons likewise involved in international relief operations was a key aim.

SQNLDR Rogers explains: “The 36th fly the same model Hercules as us, and we sat down with some of their experts and we looked at all of the USAF rules and regs and compared them to the RAAF’s rules and regs and came out with a common understanding of where the differences were and a good appreciation of where the similarities were and we were able to deploy the aircraft from a coalition mobility air force perspective I think in a very effective way.”

Despite its advancing years, the mission available rate of the H model Hercules remained at 100 per cent – until a birdstrike on the seventh day of the exercise grounded the aircraft for 24 hours.

In June, the squadron will confront somewhat more simulated air to air threats during its participation in Alaskan Red Flag, and thereafter take part in Air Warrior 2012 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

As for participation in next year’s Cope North, SQNLDR Rogers can see the training opportunities created by taking two aircraft, but points out that one extra aircraft for 37SQN means one less aircraft for another air arm. “We were briefed by Cope North coordinators that this exercise, which included 80 some aircraft, was about as big as they could make it.”

381st ECSS

The 381st Expeditionary Combat Support Squadron is based at RAAF Base Williamtown, and performs a number of vital functions as an ‘enabling’ squadron that prepares remote, austere but functional airstrips that allows combat air elements to conduct operations.

As such, it’s charged to provide ground defence, fire fighting, aircraft arrestor systems, catering, plumbing, communications, administration, logistics, ordnance handling, aircraft refueling, medical facilities and general engineering.

While the squadron does not ‘own’ all of these capabilities itself, it is able to activate them when operating an air base.

WGCDR Lee De Winton is the Commanding Officer of the 381st ECCS, and it she who oversaw its deployment to Anderson AB for Cope North 2012. The unit was heavily involved in a large scale HADR exercise that took part on the north part of the island, and saw the 381st ECCS working closely with its USAF counterpart, the 36th Contingency Response Group, located at Anderson Air Base.

WGCDR De Winton headed a contingent of 42 personnel, 18 of which were drawn from the 381st, these being augmented by personnel from 1 CCS, and various communication, airfield defence, air operations support and health services units within the RAAF.

As with 6, 2 and 37 SQNs, the 381st ECSS focused on refining complimentary and joint capabilities with US and Japanese counterparts, especially in the field of HADR.

According to SQNLDR De Winton, being able to relieve the Americans at a Forward Operating Location (FOL) is a major goal of the 381st and was key driver of its participation in Cope North. “We got a lot out of the exercise. We wanted to have a look at the US equipment, how we mirror that, because [the 36th CSG] is a very structured little team, used to supporting their Air Mobility Command, so, we wanted to see what they had, how we could be compatible with that, to allow us to do a relief in place for them, because they won’t go from a base ‘til a person has met or exceeded their capabilities.”

Once relieved, the 381st would permit US Forces to “go forward to another hub and spoke scenario to receive aircraft at another field”.

The majority of the unit’s time was spent involved in a elaborately staged HADR mission that saw the 381st setting up an airfield in response to an ‘Island nation’ having suffered a simulated earthquake. This exercise involved 70 US personnel from the 36th, along with 2 USAF C-130s and 37SQN’s C-130H, which were kept very busy during the operation. ‘There was a huge amount of cargo dropped, with aircraft flying two sorties per day’ said WGCDR De Winton, ‘in fact our C-130 said they’d managed to drop or exceed 6 months worth of air land air drop in that four day period.”

Were 381 ECSS to participate at next year’s Cope North, WGCDRDe Winton has one clear goal. “We hope to be able to take all our own equipment. It would be a good opportunity to make sure it’s palletised properly, with the correct personnel, so our priority is getting the equipment off the aircraft in the correct order, to activate the base to allow the 36th CRG to de-activate at the correct level, to go on further. So, there’s a lot of moving parts. It needs to be very well planned.”

HIT THE NORTH, Pt 2

As the United States reorients its strategic posture and consequently deploys increasing military resources to the Pacific region, it is only logical to assume Cope North will grow commensurately important in the RAAF’s exercise itinerary.

All RAAF participants interviewed by Australian Aviation were keen to praise the quality, depth and breadth of training provided, and as Exercise Director, GPCAPTHarland noted, lessons learnt would be shared at the squadron, wing and group level, and would result in improved “practices, processes, procedures and publications”.

As for Cope North 2013, GPCAPT Harland is enthusiastic, saying “We’ve got a better understanding of working with the Americans and Japanese, in the context of Cope North, and we’ll look forward to an improved exercise. Suffice to say Cope North 2012 provided us with outstanding training and value, outstanding training opportunities, and a really important engagement opportunity for the Pacific region.”