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Malaysia's Air Warrior concludes

US Marine Corps News

7/10/2009 By Cpl. Joseph Marianelli, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni

KUANTAN, Malaysia — Exercise Air Warrior culminated with Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 225 providing air-to-ground support for an amphibious assault followed immediately by an air-to-air four-versus-four here July 1.

Although the official ceremony closing the exercise was July 2, the final event was an all-out simulated beach assault bringing all the elements of Exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training together in a smallscale instantiation of a Marine Air Ground Task Force.

“We had components of the Navy working with the Malaysian Navy, with the amphibious assault and then we integrated with the air component,” said Lt. Col. Douglas W. Pasnik, VMFA(AW)-225 commanding officer. “It really shows the power of the MAGTF.”

Air Warrior provided the VMFA(AW)-225 pilots an opportunity to put their training to the test against the Mikoyan MiG-29s of the Malaysians.

“The biggest challenge is a lot of our aircrew have combat experience,” said Pasnik. “They’ve been to Iraq; they have a lot of flying hours. Air Warrior gave us an opportunity to fight a fourth generation potential adversary.”

For a number of the younger pilots, on both sides, this was their first opportunity to get practical experience against the real equipment of a potential adversary.

“An F/A-18 pilot simulating a MiG-29 is still going to fly like an F/A-18 pilot,” said 1st Lt. Steve Bradford, a VMFA(AW)-225 pilot.

“The Malaysians have some young pilots as well, so it was a great learning opportunity for them,” said Pasnik.

Even though the training here provided more experience for the pilots, the Marines supporting their efforts from the ground were able to get their hands dirtier than usual.

“From a maintainer’s standpoint, our job never changes no matter where we are,” said Cpl. Jimmy Rapaglia, a VMFA(AW)-225 aviation life support systems specialist. “When they actually train, they break (F/A-18s) more often.”

As with anything, everyone working together and doing their part helped to make this year’s Air Warrior a success.

“Everyone that’s doing their thing is important to the mission,” said Pasnik.

Even the support of the Malaysians cannot be dismissed.

“(The Malaysians) are fabulous people,” said Pasnik. “We couldn’t have asked for a better host.”

“They were very flexible with training hours,” he added.

Overall the exercise was a great success and beneficial for all involved.

“We should come here more often,” said Pasnik. “It was a great opportunity."

Exercise Air Warrior is a multilateral exercise demonstrating joint and multinational capabilities and improving interoperability between the United States and Malaysia.