Sabers conclude base readiness exercise

  • Published
  • By By Senior Airman Chanceler Nardone
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

The 52nd Fighter Wing hosted a readiness exercise here November 17-19, testing the base population’s response to a variety of potential scenarios.

“Saber Thunder Readiness Exercise 20-03 featured attacks that would be considered less traditional for a base-wide exercise, but are in line with today’s realistic threats,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Chancey, 52nd Fighter Wing inspector general, wing readiness exercise manager.

Spangdahlem exercised these potential threats through the use of cyber-attacks, attacks on utility systems and increased small unmanned aerial system attacks.

 “This array of threats provided challenging scenarios for our installation to mitigate, and also provided opportunities for base populous to detect and report these situations,” said Chancey.

Our adversaries are constantly looking for new ways to weaken, obstruct or defeat our systems to put any conflict in their favor. Our allies rely on U.S. forces to provide a credible means of deterrence and by conducting increasingly challenging exercises the wing can prove we are ready to be called upon.

Chancey referred to General Charles Q. Brown, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, and his strategic approach, “Accelerate change or lose,” which is aimed to shift our expectation of operating within uncontested domains to a more realistic mindset of operating in a highly contested environment.

Throughout the exercise, the Wing Inspection Team observed members from across the base take action to solve new problems.

“Every unit gained additional understanding of how important command and control is, especially from dispersed locations,” said Chancey. “Overall this exercise provided opportunities for units to perform their mission essential tasks in a contested, degraded and operationally limited environment.”

Part of that environment also includes COVID-19. Despite the pandemic the 52nd Fighter Wing commander says Saber Nation is always ready to go. 

“It doesn’t matter whether we are in the middle of a pandemic or not, we are going to be mission ready and we’re going to make sure we’re taking care of the needs of our nation,” said U.S. Air Force Col. David Epperson, 52nd FW commander. “I just want to thank each and every one of you out there for what you do, and I want to thank the surrounding community for the support during this exercise.”