U.S., partners plan together for Mobility Guardian Published Feb. 13, 2019 By Senior Airman Ryan Lackey 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash -- Team Fairchild hosted the Mobility Guardian 2019 International Planning Conference Feb 4-7 where more than 180 representatives from 13 partners and 27 U.S. government agencies, including 21 total force air mobility wings, planned for the future exercise. Mobility Guardian is AMC’s premiere, large-scale mobility exercise. It’s designed to build full spectrum readiness through robust and relevant scenario-based training to develop U.S. and partner forces and ensure the delivery of rapid global mobility now and in the future. “The Pacific Northwest is an ideal area to stage this exercise, allowing us to train within the Mountain Home Range Complex, Yakima Training Center range, as well as west coast Air Force Bases,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph Monaco, AMC MG19 director. “Fairchild is a tanker base that is great at what it does… part of why we are setting up here is because we need to simulate fighting a peer adversary--who will get a vote--and will not allow our staging bases to be at convenient operational locations. Fairchild provides our planners and operators tactical challenges to overcome during large-scale rapid global mobility employment, a key element of being ready for any global fight.” Participation from partner nations has increased since the initial planning meeting, and more international players have chosen to take part or observe the exercise to take home critical lessons of how to work in a deployed environment together and consider training initiatives for future exercises. “I’ve been surprised by how much we’ve been asked what we want to get out of the exercise,” said Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Dave Corlett, 70 Squadron A400M Atlas pilot. “The first exercise was mostly planned for by AMC, but this time they’re making sure that everyone will benefit… we [are] rebuilding the exercise from the ground up.” MG19 will bring a simulated warzone to the Pacific Northwest, giving partnered participants a realistic deployed environment. Practice situations and missions help build interoperability between collation forces to prepare for any possible situation in the future. “History tells us that we can’t go into conflicts alone; having partners on our side is beneficial because it provides our coalition an asymmetric advantage,” Monaco said. “In MG19, we’re generating an effect of assurance with our partners along with a shared understanding of what our strengths and weaknesses are.” Mobility Guardian is scheduled for September later this year. “Embrace the chaos and be ready to thrive through ambiguity, for there is nothing easy about what we’re doing; it's supposed to be hard,” Monaco briefed the conference planners. “We need innovative ideas for our mobility leaders to operate more effectively and safely.” “I believe that Team Fairchild is up to this challenge,” he added.
