Razor Talon provides cost effective training

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Alan Abernethy
  • 916th Public Affairs Office
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Exercise Razor Talon, hosted here, is a recurring, monthly, large scale exercise flown over the mid-Atlantic coastline.

Beginning in 2011, the exercise is an increasingly valuable cost saving measure and a means for flying units to get all required training in a limited fiscal environment.

"Razor Talon is a fighter driven exercise," said Maj. Christopher Mohr, 916th Operations Support Squadron chief of operations plans and tactics. "It involves all the fighter units on the East Coast, including Air Force, Navy, Marines as well as tankers and command and control aircraft."

While units train daily with their own people and aircraft, it's necessary for many different units to work together so that large scale scenarios can be simulated, said Capt. Matthew Williams, 77th Air Refueling Squadron pilot. Prior to Razor Talon, more east coast units traveled to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., for the large scale exercise Red Flag, to get this kind of training."

"It's fair to say that Razor Talon is an East Coast alternative to Red Flag," said Mohr, adding that all Razor Talon players leave from their home station, converge in mid-air over the east coast and return to their home station in the same day.

It is this aspect of the exercise that reduces costs and provides an opportunity for units to effectively train closer to home.

"It's very expensive to bring people out to Las Vegas for two weeks," said Williams. "The benefit of Razor Talon is we get to replicate those big exercises without anyone having to pack a bag and travel across the country to train elsewhere."

This provides a great benefit, not only for the fighters, but all participating support units.

"While the exercise is fighter driven, it also helps us as tankers," said Williams. "We have to be prepared to interface with the entire airspace war picture...we have to know our role and be proficient in interacting with all those forces and moving parts."

The December 2013 exercise included more than 50 aircraft, with more than 270,000 pounds of fuel offloaded to fighter aircraft, said Mohr.

"Future goals include expanding the Razor Talon airspace," said Mohr. "Plans for the number of aircraft involved and different scenarios only get bigger with time."