Airmen join international community at Anatolian Eagle

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Chris Stagner
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
THIRD MAIN JET BASE, Turkey (AFNS) --  Airmen of the 493rd Fighter Squadron integrated with nearly 1,000 airmen from five countries and NATO June 7 when Anatolian Eagle started at Third Main Jet Base in Konya, Turkey.

The Blue Force, consisting of airmen from the United States, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Turkey and NATO, will perfect their large force employment skills against the Red Force aircraft piloted by Turkish pilots.

The exercise is an opportunity for each air force to prepare itself for future operations.

"If there's ever another (Operation) Allied Force, these are the people we're going to fight with side by side," said Lt. Col. Connor Blackwood, the 493rd FS director of operations at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England. "This exercise is our best opportunity to test our ability to integrate with them."

"This is a way for us to test our tactics and learn from our multinational partners," said Italian air force Lt. Col. Andrea Amadori, the 132nd Squadron commander. "It's good for us to see we're standardized and prove we can deploy, fight and win together."

For the Airmen involved in the exercise, the training benefits from a combat standpoint are just as important as large-scale, multinational integration. It's an opportunity for 493rd FS pilots to train from a purely offensive stance.

"We're the first ones in and the last ones out," said Capt. Neils Barner, the 493rd FS weapons and tactics chief. "Our primary purpose is to push out in front (of the air-to-ground team) to kill the red air so the close-air-support mission is successful. This (exercise) enables us to really push those skills to the limit as we support our partners in air-to-ground and (suppression of enemy air defenses) missions. We don't have the assets at home to come close to this type of training."