Combat Hammer

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Air Force evaluates weapons systems at Hill

HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- It's not the deserts of Iraq or Afghanistan, but for fighter units preparing to deploy, the Utah Test and Training Range is almost like being there.

This week at Hill, two aircraft fighter units from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, and Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., experienced the value of the UTTR firsthand as they participated in Combat Hammer -- a two-week evaluation of Air Force weapons systems.

The UTTR sits virtually in the middle of nowhere about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City in Utah's barren West Desert. It is the largest block of authorized restricted airspace in the continental U.S;.

The range occupies 2,675 miles of ground space and more than 19,000 miles of airspace and is home to a variety of training and testing missions for the Air Force.

"The UTTR is a national treasure," said Lt. Col. Dean Ostovich, commander of the 86th Fighter Wing Squadron. "There is absolutely nothing like it."

The Combat Hammer exercise, which started May 5,gauges effectiveness of various weapons systems in real-world combat scenarios.

During the evaluation at the UTTR, Air Force personnel conducted an intense evaluation of aircrew and maintenance personnel performance.

Personnel also review telemetry data collected on weapons employment to help improve aircrew tactics, maintenance procedures and munitions reliability.

Hill typically hosts Combat Hammer twice a year, in May and August.

"What we do here prepares us for what we will see in real-world situations," Ostovich said. "Most of these guys out here will be deploying in the very near future, and there is no better way to prepare than this."

Shaw AFB brought 17 F-16s to train at the UTTR, and Mountain Home AFB arrived with 12 F-15Es.

Last week, several F-22 Raptors from Langley Air Force Base, Va., trained at the range.

First Lt. Scott Crowell, an F-15 pilot from the 391st Fighter Wing at Mountain Home, deploys to Asia in the fall and said the range is as close as it gets to the real thing.

"It's the best training airspace out there," he said. "That's why we come here -- we get experience that we couldn't otherwise get before we deploy."

Staff Sgt. James Deczynski, a crew chief from Shaw, will deploy to Balad Air Base in Iraq on a close-air-support mission in September.

Deczynski has spent the last few days preparing F-16s for their missions to the UTTR, work he said closely simulates what he will do in Iraq.

"This exercise really helps prepare us for what we will see. It's kind of like a trial run."

Combat Hammer is used to study more than just the end result of a bomb hitting its target, Ostovich said.

Test evaluations are based on a comprehensive creation-to-destruction perspective, evaluating a unit's ability to employ precision-guided munitions from assembly, to weapon loading, to aircrew employment, to target impact.

"When we leave here, our job is just beginning," Ostovich said. "Analyzing the data we get is a huge part of Combat Hammer."

Hill itself had no representation in Combat Hammer, as many of the base's units are in the middle of a deployment rotation.

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