Soldiers assigned to Alpha Company, 4th Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group move away after exiting a CV-22 Osprey via rope March 1, 2011, during Emerald Warrior at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. Emerald Warrior is an annual two-week joint/combined tactical exercise sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command officials to provide realistic training opportunities to conventional and special-operations forces. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. DeNoris Mickle)
A combat control student watches as his fellow Airmen check his parachute aboard an MC-130P Combat Shadow during an airfield seizure mission March 2, 2011, over Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in support of Emerald Warrior. Emerald Warrior is a U.S. Special Operations Command-sponsored, multiservice exercise designed to leverage lessons learned from overseas operations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez)
A loadmaster assigned to the 15th Special Operations Squadron uses a forklift to load an aircraft March 3, 2011, at Hurlburt Field, Fla., in support of Emerald Warrior. Emerald Warrior is an annual two-week joint/combined tactical exercise sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command officials to provide realistic training opportunities to conventional and special-operations forces. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez)
by Capt. Kristen D. Duncan
Air Force Special Operations Command
3/15/2011 - HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) -- A joint service and interagency exercise using both "live" and "virtual" forces concluded here recently.
Emerald Warrior concentrates on integrated tactics and multi-service command and control, as well as leverages lessons from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to provide trained and ready forces to combatant commanders.
"Emerald Warrior provides the only joint readiness exercise designed by (special operations forces), both air and ground participants, with unique integration and interoperability requirements not available in conventional exercises alone," said Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kingsley, the 23rd Air Force commander. "This is the only exercise where readiness training is determined from the ground up by the warfighter."
According to the Air Force Special Operations Command Directorate of Air, Space and Information Operations, Emerald Warrior trains 1,200 to 1,400 special operators and conventional forces annually, and it is the only accredited irregular warfare exercise.
The training provides certification for forward deployers and meets tactical and operational joint mission essential tasks and high-priority Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff training requirements.
Components of U.S. Special Operations Command are involved, as well as conventional, interagency and non-governmental agencies. In addition to providing tactical airlift, fires support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, more than 900 service members support this exercise on the ground and in command and control elements.
"Exercises of this degree cannot execute without joint staff, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Air Force and joint national training capability funding, support and exercise-training enablers," General Kingsley said. "Our warriors deserve nothing but the best replication of realistic combat environments."
Emerald Warrior is the ideal venue for integrated joint fires support, using live and virtual forces for DOD's next generation of training.
"The incorporation of tactical simulators in a 'live virtual constructive distributed environment' that can augment traditional training has proven to be of great cost savings to our warfighters while providing the same effective training," the general said. "In the SOF community, we have very perishable core skill sets that we must train ... but equally important is how we integrate as a SOF force into the conventional, coalition and interagency forces and the joint environments of modern warfare. We fight jointly so we must train jointly."
One of the primary benefits is collectively using different terminology, cultures and systems in training to be better equipped on the battlefield and to ensure interoperability.
Emerald Warrior stretches across 1.5 million acres of air and ground space, covering multiple ranges and training areas.
