Airmen from the 23rd and 347th Operations Support Squadrons at Moody AFB, Ga., led a search and rescue interoperability exercise involving 1,500 participants at Tyndall AFB, Fla., from Nov. 1-4. The exercise included HC-130J Combat King IIs, HH-60G Pave Hawks, C-17s, A-10Cs, and E-8C JSTARS, according to a press release. The training scenario allowed rescue, maintenance, intelligence, and support airmen to practice coordination of effort in a combat rescue situation from a simulated “mobile rescue operations center” of the kind that would support a forward operating base. Specific capabilities tested were “helicopter air refueling, airdrop, infiltration, exfiltration, landing on blacked out runways, and non-traditional surveillance,” according to the release.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.