SAVANNAH, Ga. –
Sentry Savannah exercise planners completed the Air National Guard’s largest fourth and fifth generation counter-air, large-force exercise with more than 650 participants, held at the Air Dominance Center, April 12-23, 2021.
Colonel Douglas Fike, commander of the ADC, said that COVID’s effect on training in 2020 drove a historic increase in exercise participants and the center’s unique ability to tailor training also attracted pilots from across the nation to the exercise.
“We need ready forces and that is exactly what Sentry Savannah is contributing by providing world-class training for our pilots,” stated Lt. Gen. Michael Loh, director of the Air National Guard.
During the two-week exercise, ANG pilots from Massachusetts, Florida, Oregon, Colorado, and Texas flying F-15C Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons practiced offensive and defensive counter air, fighter integrations, and other wartime requirements. Staged out of Hunter Army Airfield, ANG KC-135 pilots from Alabama and Mississippi refueled fighter jets every day of the exercise.
U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps pilots flew the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-35 Lightning II, a fifth generation aircraft, launching from home station in South Carolina.
“It’s amazing to be able to do this mission right off the coast of Savannah Georgia,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. “This is obviously a local community in the great state of Georgia that supports its men and women in uniform and the Georgia National Guard and those that are from around the country in the Guard.”