TR Strike Group Alaska for High-End, Joint Ex. Northern Edge

[spazsinbad]

Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group in Alaska for High-End, Joint Exercise Northern Edge 2019
14 May 2019 Megan Eckstein

"An aircraft carrier is in Alaska for Exercise Northern Edge for the first time in a decade, as the service continues to prioritize re-learning how to operate in the Arctic.

Northern Edge 2019 is a high-end joint exercise hosted by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and focused on air warfare that runs May 13 through 24. About 10,000 personnel are participating, about half of which come from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group currently operating in the Gulf of Alaska. Strike group assets include Carrier Strike Group 9 leadership, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), Carrier Air Wing 11....

...Dwyer [Rear Adm. Dan Dwyer, who commands the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group] said his crew was excited to begin the joint event, which would pair the carrier air wing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers and E-2 Hawkeyes with ground-based Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters and KC-130 cargo and refueling aircraft, and Air Force jets such as the F-22 and F-15. Any time that many types of aircraft come together to work in a range of mission areas “is incredibly valuable, especially as we talk about exercising at the highest potential of a joint force. So to come together with all those platforms will increase our readiness and our lethality across the board.”...

...Air Force Brig. Gen. Daniel Heires, deputy commander of Alaskan Command, part of U.S. Northern Command, also foot stomped during a press conference the importance of the Arctic location and the need for high-end joint exercises in INDO-PACOM. “I think we all watch the news and realize for the first time in forty years the global order is being challenged by a very serious, very serious threat,” he said. “And there’s an old adage: the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in wartime. And to translate that directly, the more we’re ready as a joint force, ready to respond to a crisis, the less likely our resolve will be tested.”

Heires said he believed the high-end exercise, which challenges the joint force to come together in an austere environment and face a complex threat, “will translate to our adversaries knowing that we’re ready to respond to a crisis.”"

Source: https://news.usni.org/2019/05/14/theodo ... -edge-2019