Airmen from the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron and the 169th Air Defense Squadron approach a KC-135 Stratotanker at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Feb. 5, 2025, during exercise Sentry Aloha 25-1. Fighter jets, tankers and support units participated in simulated combat scenarios, enhancing interoperability and readiness among U.S. military forces. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Roann Gatdula)

F-22A Raptors and a KC-135 Stratotanker taxi the runway at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Feb. 5, 2025, during exercise Sentry Aloha 25-1. Fighter jets, tankers and support units participated in simulated combat scenarios, enhancing interoperability and readiness among U.S. military forces. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Roann Gatdula)

The Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing concluded its long-running readiness exercise, Sentry Aloha, Feb. 12.

Designated Sentry Aloha 25-1, this iteration began Jan. 29. It brought approximately 800 joint personnel, including Guardsman, Reservists, locally based active-duty partners from the 15th Wing, Sailors and Marines and nearly 30 aircraft from six states.

For more than 20 years, Sentry Aloha has enabled tailored, cost-effective and realistic combat training for the Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force, and other Department of Defense services. It provides U.S. warfighters with the skills to perform homeland defense and overseas combat missions.

Sentry Aloha is built around Dissimilar Air Combat Training, which challenges pilots to engage in combat scenarios against aircraft with different performance capabilities. Rather than training against identical airframes, DACT forces pilots to adapt to unpredictable engagements, testing their ability to exploit their platform's strengths while capitalizing on adversary weaknesses.

The exercise operates at an intense tempo, with participants generating back-to-back combat training sorties daily.

Guest participants included U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning IIs from California and U.S. Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotankers from Washington and Mississippi. Visiting aircraft took part in simulated combat exercises with F-22A Raptors operated by the 199th and 19th Fighter Squadrons' Hickam-based 'Hawaiian Raptors.'

Joint maintenance teams launched, recovered and maintained the fifth-generation fighters, refueling tankers and cargo aircraft.

The successful execution of these flight operations highlights the importance of Hawaii's strategic location and training environment.

"Hawaii offers great weather, especially over-water airspace to train in the Indo-Pacific Theater, as well as the opportunities to practice those agile combat employment tactics, techniques and procedures," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Matthew Ohman, 201st Combat Operations Squadron, Sentry Aloha senior director. "The Hawaiian Raptors rely heavily on these exercises to accomplish mission readiness. It's a culmination of a lot of training."

During this iteration of Sentry Aloha, the 169th Air Defense Squadron provided a team of battle management operators aboard the KC-135 for the first time, delivering non-traditional tactical command and control to the forward edge. From the airborne platform, they relayed near real-time situational awareness provided via beyond-line-of-sight communications by air battle managers and battle management operators on the ground using a simulated common operational picture, exercising fight-tonight capabilities.

"The HIANG must continue to integrate," said Tech. Sgt. Kukila Carreira-Manin, 169th ADS, weapons and tactics noncommissioned officer in charge. "Every service member within USINDOPACOM has a significant responsibility to support each other from every aspect in every rank. Time is precious within this theater and every second counts building our relationships with one another."

The daily tanker support served as a force multiplier, enabling fighter aircraft to extend their range and mission duration without frequent landings to base, reducing congestion at the airport and creating efficient flight operations. By providing in-flight refueling, tankers allow participants to maximize their flight hours, conduct more extensive training scenarios and remain engaged in exercises longer to enhance operational effectiveness.

Agile Combat Employment concepts were deployed and rehearsed among participants across the Hawaiian Islands. Among these systems were the implementation of a Tactical Operations Center-Lite brought in by the 103rd Air Control Squadron from the Connecticut Air National Guard.

The mobile system is designed to be compact and ready for rapid deployment and advanced airspace tactical control. Unlike traditional systems that require extensive infrastructure and staffing, TOC-L integrates cloud-based command and control capabilities, enabling seamless operations worldwide. It can be packed into about two dozen hand-carried cases and be operational within an hour with minimal personnel.

"It was our most ambitious TOC-L execution to date," said Maj. J. Seth Bopp, 103rd Air Control Squadron director of operations. "... We couldn't have done it without our joint partners from the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Space Force, who acted as force enablers for our proof of concept."

The 103rd ACS exercised a morning vulnerability from Kaneohe Marine Corps Base on Oahu, disassembled equipment, deployed from Oahu on a KC-130J Hercules to the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the neighboring island of Kauai, and redeployed back to Oahu in a five-hour window.

"Doing all of that in a short window across two islands was paramount in proving ACE concepts for TOC-L," said Senior Master Sgt. Jonathan Burr, 103rd Air Control Squadron senior enlisted leader. "Traveling out from our home base in Connecticut and across the Hawaiian Islands, the team had to jump through hoops to make things happen and they were exceptional."

Source: U.S.Air Force