Tinker, Sill units band together for training

[unhappycamper]

Tinker, Sill units band together for training
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 17, 2008 8:02:44 EST

OKLAHOMA CITY — A joint training exercise will bring together an Army Patriot missile unit stationed at Fort Sill and an Air Force communications unit stationed at Tinker Air Force Base for the first time this month.

The exercise will help the units iron out problems they normally wouldn’t find until they were deployed to hostile territory. Most importantly, units from different military branches are working out the bugs together, said Maj. Lisa Bartel, of the Army’s 6th Battalion 52nd Air Defense Artillery.

“Each branch of service has its own language. But when you come together in our field, with theater missile defense, everybody has to speak the same language,” Bartel said.

Patriot missile batteries have their own radar but must rely on data from the E-3 Sentry aircraft and its Airborne Warning and Control System in the field. The AWACS extend the missile’s range and provide a clearer picture of the battlefield.

During the two-week training exercise being conducted at Tinker, soldiers manning two Patriot missile batteries will gather information from AWACS and their own radar and send it to a command center at Fort Sill.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_tinkersill_080117/



uhc comment: Nice. After 44 years, you'd think these folks would have figured out how to work the damn thing.