VOLK FIELD, Wis. - More than 100 Airmen and 10 F-16 Fighting Falcons assigned to Ohio National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing deployed to Wisconsin in early August to participate in the Northern Lightning exercise.
Northern Lightning is an annual training event hosted at Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center to enhance combat capability and readiness.
During this two-week exercise, the 180FW demonstrated its ability to integrate with joint forces, focusing on air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, dissimilar aircraft air tactics and offensive and defensive counter-air, with realistic surface-to-air and air-to-air threats.
“With Northern Lightning, the key factor is the scale of the exercise and that fourth- and fifth-generation integration,” said Maj. Travis Dancer, an F-16 fighter pilot and project officer for Northern Lightning. “Where both aircraft can do air-to-air and air-to-ground so we can use each other’s benefits.”
The ability to integrate their fourth-generation aircraft with fifth-generation aircraft was a major theme of Northern Lightning.
“The big learning objective here is to use the fifth generation to complement the fourth-generation aircraft,” said Capt. Patrick Haugen, an F-16 pilot assigned to the 180FW.
Northern Lightning provides a training environment for the pilots to test this integration.
“Flying with the F-35, we’re trying to use our systems paired with their systems and see how they complement each other and then testing our game plans to see if they work out,” said Haugen.
Highlighting how the aircraft complement one another was a major objective for Northern Lightning. The 180FW worked with U.S. Marine pilots to sync the F-16 with the F-35.
“It’s important that we’re in this joint environment because that’s how we’re going to win the war,” said Haugen. “There’s not going to be just one type of aircraft, and working with our Marine partners allows us to train to win a near-peer conflict.”
Dancer agreed.
“When we talk about the future of warfare, the separation of different branches is going to the wayside,” said Dancer. “I think that is a good thing because assets such as the F-35s from the Marine Corps bring a different avenue to the fight that work well in tandem with our F-16s, and the more we get into that joint environment is a necessity because of the future outlook of our adversaries.“
Volk Field provided much larger airspace than the 180FW uses for training back home.
“With Volk Field, the major factor is the airspace,” said Dancer. “Up here in the northern part of the United States, we have a lot more airspace that we are able to use, which is really conducive to our kind of training that we wouldn’t be able to get back home in Ohio’s airspace.”
Volk Field is a large base with housing for service members. So members of the 180FW, mainly traditional Guardsmen, could live and work together for an extended period, which is key to improving morale and readiness.