JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Imagine having the ability to manage aircraft and 1,800 people all from 850 miles away. That’s exactly what the “Mobsters” will be doing during Air Mobility Command’s premier, large-scale mobility exercise.
Airmen with the 621st Air Mobility Operations Squadron will participate in exercise Mobility Guardian, which is mostly being held in Michigan, all from the squadron’s newly renovated weapon system suite located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Mobility Guardian is the Air Force's largest and longest exercise ensuring readiness to move military personnel and equipment in combat operations.
The weapon system suite empowers air mobility command and control experts to execute air operations remotely, supporting combatant commanders across a full range of military operations.
"Our WSS offers realistic training opportunities to our cadre of C2 experts as it houses many of the same systems we encounter when augmenting combatant command Air Operation Centers worldwide, thus making it the perfect platform to house the exercise All-Domain Operations Center," said Lt. Col. James Sprys, 621st AMOS commander.
The WSS opened this month and is accelerating change within the Air Force.
"As a combat systems administrator for the weapon system suite, it's astonishing to see our personnel using it so soon after opening and getting a full-scale exercise to work off of it," said Senior Airman William Finley, 621st AMOS combat systems administrator.
WSS capabilities include directing people, cargo and equipment to support Air Mobility Command's four core missions: airlift, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation and global air mobility support.
Airmen are being challenged to do things outside of their usual roles providing a unique training opportunity to expand their capabilities.
"This year, we've been designated as an ’All-Domain Operations Center’ for the exercise, and we have an embedded cyber Mission Defense Team," Sprys said. "This represents a new area of focus for our enterprise, and we are learning a vast amount from the cyber domain every day."
The Mission Defense Team works to defend the ADOC against cyber threats and preserve its ability to command and control.
The 621st AMOS will support an integrated joint force of over 1,800 Total Force personnel at six dispersed locations over 13 days of intense operations.
They will also exercise their expertise to plan, coordinate and integrate the full range of mobility airpower for 18 mobility aircraft to simulate all-domain operations against a skillful adversary.
The Mobsters of the 621st AMOS have worked for years to re-locate and update their WSS to Air Force standards.
"We've been chomping at the bit to test our capabilities in a greater capacity," Spry said. "We hope to use the lessons from this exercise to jump to different distributed operation capabilities to support Air Mobility Divisions worldwide.”