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On August 26th, 2018, 6 F-16s from the 195th Fighter Squadron of the 162nd Fighter Wing, took off from their airfield in Tucson, Arizona for the long flight across the US and the Atlantic Ocean to Náměšť
Air Base in the Czech Republic. What made the trip unique was that is was the first time in over 30 years that the squadron had sent aircraft to Europe. The reason for the trip was the annual Czech-led international exercise called Ample Strike 2018. The exercise, which took place from August 31st through September 15th at various locations throughout the Czech Republic, was a live fire exercise intended to increase proficiency levels for all forward air controllers (FAC) and joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs), as well as to improve standardization and interoperability among NATO allies and partners.
Ample Strike has come along way since its first iteration in 2002 when the exercise had only eight aircraft working with one Czech team of forward air controllers working together with a British team. This exercise consisted of 19 countries and 20 JTAC teams supported by over 40 varied aircraft and helicopters and over 1,000 troops. Aircraft included Eurofighters, Gripens, Hinds, as well as other types including contractor aircraft operating with FLIR pods such as GFDs Learjet. The Arizona ANG sent over 6 Block-30 F-16s including one D model and over 100 personal including 22 pilots along with all the equipment necessary. It took 2 fully loaded C-17s to get the equipment needed for the exercise. Náměšť AFB is a usually a helicopter base and as such, it was the first time C-17s had landed on its one and only runway. The country worked with the US embassy to get a C-17 in for some tests and certify it before the exercise began. The overall purpose of Ample Strike is an air-to-ground exercise. 19 different countries participated in the exercise along with several JTAC teams setting up 5 different areas of operations across the country to run through 5 different scenarios. Each JTAC team was rotated across the country to participate in each scenario providing great training over a short period of time. 'It was a significant amount of training for the JTACs whose job it is to integrate the Army units with the different Air Forces overhead.
In total over the two week exercise, the pilots of the 195th Fighter Training Squadron flew 57 close air support missions of the over 377 that were flown in the exercise. That accounted for over 100 hours in the air over the Czech Republic where they simulated over 200 targets destroyed. The men and women of the Arizona ANG are very proud of their first oversees trip in over 3 decades and hope that it won't be that long before the next one.