SAVANNAH, Ga. – Nearly 800 members from 10 Air National Guard units will participate in Operation Maverick’s Armistice, an agile combat readiness exercise that started April 21.
The exercise runs through April 27 and will be held at the Air Dominance Center in Savannah, Ga., and surrounding airfields in the Sea of Antilles.
Operation Maverick’s Armistice (OMA) is the fourth iteration of an agile combat training exercise led by the 192nd Wing, Virginia Air National Guard, from Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Va. Participating states and territories include Virginia, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The exercise tests and validates critical lethal warfighting capabilities to ensure dominance in contested environments.
Ever increasing in complexity and maneuver, OMA will test airborne units of action across KC-135, KC-46 and C-130J aircraft supporting offensive and defensive counter-air, maritime interdiction and combat search and rescue using F-22, F-35, P-8 and E-2D aircraft while maintaining accountability and strategic control from a 10 wing combined air staff.
“This exercise will test each unit’s ability to identify problems, improvise, adapt and overcome,” said Lt. Col. Lawrence Dietrich, OMA exercise director. “We are delegating execution authorities and operational control down to the lowest levels in wartime units of action enabling rapid decision making striving for mission progress rather than stagnant forces waiting for direction.”
There was no forward, pre-positioned logistical support and personnel for the exercise to show that, as a combined force, the Air National Guard can establish a forward presence only when necessary and with no prior build up, turn combat operations and dissolve back into the theater without tripping a noise threshold that draws attention to the force.