The 321 AMOS Pours A Mug of ‘Latte Thunder’ Onto the European Theater

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Bradlee Seehawer
  • 321st Air Mobility Operations Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  

A threat is advancing through Europe. Tankers are launching to refuel fighters, wounded troops need to be evacuated, and artillery needs to be airlifted into hostile territory to stop the enemy’s advance. How is the Air Mobility Division going to respond?

That’s the question the 321st Air Mobility Operations Squadron gathered to answer during Exercise Operation Latte Thunder on October 10. The tabletop exercise is patterned on Air Mobility Command’s “Fight Club,” a cross-functional team that conducts critical analysis of the pacing threat, close potential gaps, and posture mobility air forces to win under any conditions. 

“Operation Latte Thunder” was a codename in the 1999 film “Fight Club.” Working in their functional teams, the Masterminds of the 321 AMOS used the Joint Planning Process to determine courses of action to deliver mobility effects for the Joint Force Air Component Commander.

"In order to realize the squadron's vision of becoming unparalleled operational planners, we need to define the current limits of our knowledge and capabilities,” Capt. Jacob Helm, 321 AMOS Chief of Exercises said. “LATTE THUNDER allowed the squadron to discover unknown unknowns and increase the effectiveness of future training events. In general, the goal of this exercise was to think about planning for a non-permissive environment that leads into our Exercise HOME PLATE scenario set in the European theater.”

For 50 years the 321 AMOS has deployed to support U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercises and contingencies, developing a deep knowledge of the Pacific. The squadron has supported other combatant commands less frequently. Exercise Operation LATTE THUNDER attempts to fill in some of those knowledge gaps through exploring theater-specific mobility challenges that push their ability to think critically about how to employ mobility aircraft at the operational level of warfighting in denied, disrupted, intermittent, and limited environments.

Unlike a typical deployment where the AMOS joins a standing AMD in the middle of conflict, LATTE THUNDER emphasizes the transition from steady state to contingency operation, digging into manuals and regulations to develop options to accomplish the objective or questions they would ask of members of the Air Force Forces staff. The exercise stresses the Masterminds to think a little more critically about the appropriate level of risk that might be required of a high-end fight.

“Exercise Operation LATTE THUNDER reinforces our vision of being ready to control and win the global high-end fight,” Lt Col C.J. Yerage, 321 AMOS Squadron Commander said. “Our planners are ready to support any AMD and tackle a myriad of problem sets. We continue to evolve with different plans to support the future fight. This exercise is just one example of how we continue to advance our readiness.”