One Defence: delivering successive major training events for the Royal Air Force
23 Dec 24
Collective Training and Services OBU
23 Dec 24
Collective Training and Services OBU
Inzpire is proud to be a world-leader in collective training solutions, delivering live flying, large force exercises to help train future Warfighters, as demonstrated in our support to exercises STORM WARRIOR and COBRA WARRIOR 24-2.
Exercise COBRA WARRIOR is the Royal Air Force’s capstone training event and marks the culmination of Combat Air, Air Mobility, Command and Control (C2), Space, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), and Rotary Qualified Weapons Instructor (QWI) courses.
Run by the RAF and Inzpire’s live exercise delivery team within 92 Squadron (Sqn) at the Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) RAF Waddington, Exercise COBRA WARRIOR 24-2 tested various UK and international training audiences, including participants from Canada, Finland, Norway, Poland and the United States.
The exercise required the next generation of tactical-level Warfighters to integrate their separate capabilities in a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment against a simulated peer adversary, across 14 increasingly complex missions.
Exercise STORM WARRIOR is a composite air operations large force exercise designed to provide the RAF’s combat air units with challenging tactical training to instruct and develop Typhoon and Lightning QWI undergraduates. Designed and delivered by Inzpire personnel and their military counterparts within 29 Sqn at RAF Coningsby, it is the platform-level assessment event before the undergraduates undergo their wider integration-level assessment in Exercise COBRA WARRIOR.
Following Exercise COBRA WARRIOR, graduates return to their frontline units with the necessary expertise to provide cutting-edge and effective tactical leadership for UK Defence.
F16 departing from RAF Waddington during Ex COBRA WARRIOR 2024. © UK MOD Crown Copyright 2024. AS2 Ben Webb
Inzpire’s White Force comprises a team of subject matter experts with extensive, combined military experience across a diverse portfolio of Combat Air, ISR, C2, Intelligence and Space backgrounds. The team has been an integral part of the design and delivery of Exercise COBRA WARRIOR at the ASWC since 2015, and this was their eighth time supporting the delivery of Exercise STORM WARRIOR. Though, the latest iterations of both exercises have been the largest and most complex to date.
Inzpire’s White Force coordinated the detailed planning of both events, translating individual and collective training objectives into realistic live-fly missions and overseeing the delivery of mission planning products up to QWI level.
Through the development phases, the SMEs supported the building of multi-domain environments using the exercise control support software, the testing of live and constructive data feeds, and the replication of support assets such as the ISR constellation and deployed threat systems.
During mission execution, Inzpire managed the delivery of training to challenge the participants, elicit key debrief points and achieve desired learning objectives.
The close liaison between Inzpire’s White Force specialists at both 29 Sqn and 92 Sqn helps to ensure that Exercise STORM WARRIOR is coherent with Exercise COBRA WARRIOR, providing the best possible preparation for the exercise and seamless service for the RAF customer.
Throughout both exercises, the team works in synergy with military counterparts as part of the ‘One Defence’ construct.
RAF Boulmer personnel taking part in Ex COBRA WARRIOR 2024. © UK MOD Crown Copyright 2024.Cpl Jamie Ledger RAF.
Exercise COBRA WARRIOR was a truly international affair with over 77 aircraft taking part in a variety of roles. This included F-16Cs from Poland and the United States Air Force (USAF), F-35As from Norway and the USAF, and F/A-18C Hornets from Finland. The Canadian Air Force also sent CF-18 Hornets and CC-130H Hercules’.
This iteration marked the first time the whole exercise control function was delivered from the John Collier Facility at RAF Waddington. Previously, White Force personnel have needed to deploy to RAF Boulmer to dynamically manage the mission execution, but the development of this award-winning capability – which was tested and assured by the 29 Sqn team as part of Exercise STORM WARRIOR - meant that the entire planning, briefing, execution and debriefing cycle could be orchestrated from a single location, bringing centralisation of expertise and generating staff efficiencies.
Moreover, the integration of the Combat Intelligence Cell within a rolling campaign enabled around 2000 intelligence products to be injected into the scenario to test analysts and their ability to operate at multiple classifications across a western coalition.
This year’s Exercise STORM WARRIOR included 12 live missions – two more than the standard 10 – and four synthetic scenarios. Each one informed by real-world lessons and challenges, including from Ukraine, and designed to test the QWI candidates across all their respective roles and capabilities.
Several tactical developments were introduced to reflect emerging capabilities and threats which enabled the QWI courses to develop and test training, tactics, and procedures at an appropriate security classification, notably live cruise missile defence.
Wing Commander Sam Williams, Officer Commanding 92 Squadron, said:
“Recent global events continue to highlight how important it is that we are ready and able to operate effectively together, fully integrated with our international partners and allies. As the capstone graduation event for our Qualified Weapons Instructor Courses, Exercise COBRA WARRIOR provides unique challenges for the various training audiences that attend.
“The Exercise has evolved considerably over the past few years in terms of complexity and challenge, now requiring participants to Plan, Brief, Execute and Debrief coherent and integrated activity across all warfighting domains concurrently in a highly contested threat environment.
“The successful conclusion of Exercise COBRA WARRIOR 24-2 represents a significant achievement and is testament to the hard work of all involved in the planning and delivery of the largest and most complex multi-domain iteration of the exercise to date. This is only possible due to the synergistic blend of Service Personnel and the Inzpire team that is embedded within 92 Squadron, and across the wider Air & Space Warfare Centre, as part of our One Defence construct.”
Wing Commander Andrew Shaw, Officer Commanding 29 Squadron, commented:
“Ex STORM WARRIOR has become almost unrecognisable from earlier iterations. It has built-in complexity, managed expertly by the Inzpire team, and has amazed with its capacity to flex to maintain pace with both the modern threat and the increasingly complex capabilities which we are expected to exercise.
“We are incredibly lucky to have such dedicated, passionate individuals working to support the development of our future QWIs.”
Nick Borbone, Director of Collective Training and Services, Inzpire, said:
“Our collective training experts work year-round for our RAF customers as part of the ‘One Defence’ team, and we’re delighted to see their efforts culminate in the successful delivery of Ex STORM WARRIOR and COBRA WARRIOR. We are extremely proud of the level of trust and integration achieved with our RAF partners which is testament to the experience of the Inzpire team and their relentless pursuit of the highest delivery standards.”
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