USJFCOMLive

BQ09 may be a U.S.-sponsored event, but ten other nations have sent warfighters, testers, and equipment to the assessment.  Today, the photo/video team and I spent some time at a static target site, where aviators fly in to notionally “bomb” a target and test their tracking systems to find out whether those systems can communicate with those various friendly forces scattered in the vicinity of that target.  A group of joint terminal attack controllers from Belgium was on the scene, deconflicting the unseen multinational aircraft flying overhead.

Deconflicting consists mostly of communicating via radio with inbound and on-station pilots.  The Belgians were making sure planes were staying at their assigned altitudes to make sure no accidents occurred as the aircraft circled overhead and tested their systems.  I spent a few minutes chatting with Belgian Army Sgt. Maj. Pierre Bodart, who works as a joint terminal air controller (JTAC) instructor in his home country.

The aim is to monitor the traffic.  We have jets flying a profile, and they are interrogating a couple of targets just to check digitally aided [close-air support] systems.

Bodart told me Belgium has been participating in U.S.-sponsored close-air support events since first participating in a Green Flag exercise at Fort Irwin, Calif.’s National Training Center in 2006.  Results from that participation were encouraging, so Belgium’s armed forces accepted a USJFCOM invitation to Bold Quest 07 and have been part of the assessments since.

We are a small country, so we’re looking for ways to get the maximum interoperability we can get with our coalition partners and U.S. forces, since we’re all running operations together in Afghanistan and the Balkans area.

While Bold Quest 09 is a good opportunity for Belgium to stay up on what its allies are doing in with CAS, the assessment has benefits for the individual warfighters as well.  Bodart said the opportunity to glean lessons learned from other militaries’ warfighters was invaluable to him as someone who teaches his country’s JTACs.

It’s a good opportunity to meet foreign people - other JTACs from other nations – and discussing capabilities, kits, and [tactics, techniques and procedures.  Being an instructor, when we come back and go back to school to teach JTACs, we can share experience and lessons learned from other guys as well.

Check back later for Staff Sgt. Vanessa Valentine’s photos of the Belgian JTACs on the line.