FRIDAY FOTO Extra (May 23, 2014) UPDATE

Wearin’ of the Green. 

UPDATES with link to AP story on Air Force report about a botched security drill at another ICBM site last summer.

U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brittany Y. Auld

We know we’ve run photos in the past of the sniper camouflage outfit known as a ghillie suit, but this one caught our eye. With the red plastic training rifles and all green smoke, it looks more like a special effects scene from a science fiction movie than an important security exercise at an Air Force nuclear missile base.

But as kooky as the scene in this photo may appear, it illustrates part of a key training session: keeping the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) sites secure.

Here we see the opposing forces — the pretend bad guys — capturing a missile payload transport vehicle during a “recapture and recovery exercise” at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. The exercise involved a mock hijack of a payload transporter and the necessary steps for the 91st Security Forces Group to recover the vehicle.

Such exercises evaluate the missile base’s response force and their abilities to deny hostile intruders access to Minot’s Minuteman III nuclear missiles and their launch area. The drills also hone skills for recovering control of critical equipment if attackers do gain access.

UPDATE: The necessity of such exercises has been underscored by an Air Force internal report on  the security team’s “botched response” to a simulated attack at another Air Force base last summer, according to an exclusive report by the Associated Press. (See it here)

For more photos, click here.

FRIDAY FOTO (May 23, 2014)

Balikatan Bundle

(Photo by U.S. Air Force Maj. Teodoro Apalisok)

Chief Master Sgt. Reynold Albright (right) and Philippine Navy personnel prepare a low altitude airdrop from a U.S. Air Force C-130H Hercules cargo plane during Exercise Balikatan near Subic Bay in the Philippines.

Albright is a 36th Airlift Squadron superintendent demonstrating the unique Low-cost, Low-altitude airdrop (LCLA) technique  to practice delivering humanitarian aid and supplies to remote regions. LCLA uses available resources and re-purposed personnel parachutes to build supply pallets at a fraction of the cost of other airdrop bundles. The pallets are dropped at low altitude, which improves drop accuracy.

Balikatan, which translates from Tagalog to “shoulder-to-shoulder,” is an annual bilateral exercise focusing on U.S. -Philippine cooperation and mutual defense.