U.S. Army carrying out CH-47 training at Eareckson Air Station
The U.S. Army is bring two CH-47 helicopters to Eareckson Air Station on Shemya Island in the Aleutian Island Chain for long-range navigation training.
located at Eareckson Air Station, Shemya, Alaska. The primary mission of COBRA DANE is to collect radar metric and signature data on foreign ballistic missile events. Additional missions include collecting space surveillance data on new foreign launches and satellites in low-earth orbit. The radar has a 95-foot diameter phased array and the capability to track and record data on as many as 120 objects simultaneously.
The helicopters are from Fort Wainwright and each helicopter will have 3 pilots, one flight engineer and one crew chief onboard.
Lt. Col. Jorge Rosario of the 1-52 General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB) says the training will give his pilots a chance to practice overwater flying.
“We found that heading down to the Aleutians was just a perfect training scenario to get us flying long distances, long range over water,” Rosario said. “And navigation, which is really part of this — so, time on target and being able to navigate with not a lot of visual cues. I don’t know that there’s anywhere that is comparable. It’s definitely a place that is unique and provides us a mix of training challenges that we can take advantage of.”
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