AMOS provide command and control during Swift Response 18

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Robert Waggoner
  • 621st, 321st Air Mobility Operations Squadrons

Airmen from the 621st Air Mobility Operations Squadron (AMOS) from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey and the 321st AMOS from Travis Air Force Base, California, came together to provide command and control during the U.S. Army Europe led multinational exercise Swift Response ‘18, from June 7-15, 2018.

The AMOS worked closely with air reserve units, contingency response units, NATO units, and air mobility liaison officers (AMLO) of the 621st Contingency Response Wing, to provide a connection point between air operations and the contingency response group’s running the airfield.

“We provide all the mission management for flights during the exercise, including any last minute planning, alerts of the crews, and we deal with everything else in between that could go wrong or right,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Sarah Pyle, AMOS execution chief for Swift Response ‘18. “We make sure that the right people are put in touch with the right people to ensure the mission happens.”

During the exercise, AMOS members worked as an execution cell, dedicated to command and control for air mobility, which is a little different from their usual position as an augmentation force inside the Air Operations Center (AOC).

“Normally, if something happens anywhere in the world, we can be in these locations within 12 hours allowing the AOC to run the day to day and handle the increased stress that contingencies bring,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Marcus Cunningham, AMOS mission commander. “It works really, really well because we spend so much time supporting these units when they are exercising that when something comes up, we’ve been there, we know the people, we know how they run things.”

Exercise Swift Response ‘18 featured high-readiness airborne forces from nine nations including Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“We don’t work with multinational partners all that often,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert Rein, AMOS contingency mission manager. “It’s really useful to see how they work their processes.”

According to Rein, working with these multinational partners allows them to see how they deal with problems that arise, “This allows us to de-conflict how we navigate problems to better work together during a contingency response.”

Swift Response ‘18 provides a vital joint and multinational training opportunity that allows command and control of complex operations from dispersed locations while ensuring that participating forces work together seamlessly to bring the full weight of the joint and combined team to bear-wherever and whenever needed- to defend against regional aggression.