U.S. Indo-Pacific Command conducted a capabilities exercise named Sling Stone Dec. 4 to 10 to enhance warfighter capabilities and rehearse defense of the homeland operations parallel to the Missile Defense Agency’s Flight Experiment Mission-02 on Guam.
The goal of the exercise was to use FEM-02, an Aegis Guam System missile intercept test held Dec. 10, as a tactical training event to hone skills, increase interoperability, and improve communication and understanding between forces while also coordinating with civil authorities to train for a whole-of-government approach to crisis response.
Sling Stone, held in conjunction with Joint Task Force-Micronesia, validated the Guam Defense System concept of operations. It brought together assets and personnel from the Air Force, Army, Navy, and allied forces to use the missile intercept for multi-domain training.
“The success of Sling Stone is a testament to the incredible work our joint-service team does every day to maintain a strong defensive posture in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Navy Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, commander, JTF-M. “Leveraging MDA’s missile intercept test to train how we fight just made sense. We will take lessons learned and continue to strengthen the architecture of Guam’s defense against evolving adversary missile threats.”
The CAPEX was the first Department of Defense exercise to integrate postured joint warfighters, service technical teams, industry partners, and Battle Management Command, Control, Communication authorities all engaged in a collective and collaborative effort to develop, exercise, and operate GDS capabilities. Sling Stone was the catalyst for INDOPACOM’s Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability to accelerate multi-domain joint training and link theater-wide Integrated Air and Missile Defense capabilities to the GDS.
“The success of Sling Stone and PMTEC’s operations, activities, and investments are forging a path towards incorporating future capabilities that enable data capture and analysis, deep learning, data science solutions, and artificial intelligence/machine learning tools to advance the collaborative relationship between services and combatant command at the forward edge,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Richard Goodman, who oversees PMTEC as the INDOPACOM director of training and exercises.
Sling Stone was conducted in two main phases. Phase one began ahead of FEM-02 and included live, virtual, and constructive training environments simulating real-world multi-domain operations on land, in the air, and at/from the sea.
Task Force Talon, the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense unit located on Guam, also received missile tracking information. The THAAD battery provides ballistic missile defense coverage for the entire island of Guam.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Maya-class guided-missile destroyer JS Haguro (DDG 180) exercised its air defense support, increasing interoperability between international forces and fostering a broader-spectrum, shared information environment.
JTF-M and Joint Region Marianas continue to work closely with the Government of Guam to ensure military operations and exercises are fully coordinated. Sling Stone provided an opportunity for the military and Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense to rehearse the notification process and increase crisis-response readiness to better serve the community.
FEM-02 is part of the long-term initiative for the defense of Guam and will inform the larger effort to develop, install and operate Guam Defense System, which is comprised of a combination of Army, Navy, Air Force and MDA components that work together to provide Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense. These defense entities will develop and deploy a persistent layered missile defense system for Guam.
JTF-M’s mission is to perform Homeland Defense, Defense Support to Civil Authorities, and Foreign Humanitarian Assistance through a whole of government approach within its assigned joint operations area.
