• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

32nd Air Operations Group

U.S. Air Forces in Europe's 32nd Air Operations Group airmen comprise what is called a Falconer Air Operations Center, one of five such units in the Air Force. The centers are named Falconers because, a falconer controls a bird of prey. A bird of prey represents our Air Force combat capability, and the Falconer AOC controls that combat capability. USAFE's center has about 330 airmen assigned in rated and nonrated Air Force specialties. No two Falconers are alike. Our guidance, techniques and procedures are fairly new, so they tend not to match perfectly. Technology is advancing so fast that it's difficult to have everybody on the same level of technology and experience.

The centers are force multipliers that bring together people, processes and technologies to provide operational leverage for the application of combat air power. Together, the team maximizes the Air Force's ability to achieve air and space superiority. The center is the key component in achieving this success. Somebody has to develop the grand plan that includes all the other airplanes and resources needed. The Center helps develop and execute air campaign plans. Somebody has to be in charge of it; otherwise it would be sheer chaos.

The Falconer center is where all the stove pipes meet. It's like one-stop shopping. The Center develops the strategy by putting words against objectives. Then they go into targeting, where they place the targets associated with those objectives. They also go into other areas where they amass the aircraft and assign them to those targets. That's the attack planning, and it results in the air-tasking order which orchestrates the whole plan. It all takes place on the center floor, strategy through execution and then follow-on assessment of the whole process.

Lessons from the post-Cold War era and recent conflicts like the global war on terrorism led to the continual development of centers and their recognition as a valuable weapons system. Participation in Red Flag is a result of that recognition. Red Flag will allow the Center to train in a dynamic and challenging environment, which is typical of today's expeditionary air operations. This is something they can't typically do in Europe because of the intensity. The realism that Red Flag provides is a tremendous opportunity they just can't duplicate. The move toward integrating centers into the exercise is a natural progression as new technologies emerge, but there are unique challenges to face on the road to integration.

America's ability to dominate air and space during war was tested 19-31 October 2003. About 90 airmen from 32nd Air Operations Group descended on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., to participate in Red Flag 2003. It was the first of its kind to deploy to Nellis and participate in the Air Force's annual airpower combat-training exercise. Airmen from the Air National Guard's 152nd AOG in Syracuse, N.Y., as well as other locations augmented the Ramstein airmen, bringing the number of deployed people to about 100. Only about one-third of the Ramstein unit deployed.