The US Air Force’s (USAF) 355th Civil Engineer Squadron has tested its warfighting capabilities during an airfield damage response and assessment exercise.
Held at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the exercise saw all CE flights working together to respond to a damaged airfield.
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The exercise sought to evaluate their response to the scenario in a simulated deployed environment.
355th CES explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) flight quality assurance non-commissioned officer in charge master sergeant Joshua Daley said: “We’re testing the integration and interoperability of all the different flights throughout CE.
“We have a lot of different functions, and this is how we’re able to get together and test our wartime capabilities as a whole squadron.”
During the exercise, a team consisting of an engineering technician specialist and EOD technicians assessed the airfield after damage.
The team gathered information about the damage and unexploded ordnance, which was then transferred to the emergency operations centre.
Daley added: “Immediately after an attack, one of the first things we need to be able to do is launch and recover aircraft.
“Our first priority is to get out to the runway and find any damage and find any remaining unexploded ordnance.”
Following assessment and disposal of the unexploded ordnance, pavement and construction equipment and structural specialists demonstrated their damage repair capabilities.
Overall, the exercise allowed CE to prepare and test the skills and readiness to tackle such situations in the real-world.
An EOD technician assesses the fallout of a disarmed improvised unexploded ordnance.
