Highlands Today
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Atlantic Strike VII Coming Next Week
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Published: June 11, 2008
AVON PARK AIR FORCE RANGE — Get ready for the pyrotechnics and the loud booms. The Avon Park Air Force Range will host its semiannual training operation next week.
Atlantic Strike VII, a large-scale training exercise where bombers and joint ground forces from all over the South simulate urban warfare missions, will train numerous military personnel for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. The training missions require forces to participate in what amounts to a war game with role-playing guerilla fighters, insurgents, sniper fire, roadside explosives and many of the conditions faced by their counterparts supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Air Force Maj. Raymond Brennan, who is the event director for Atlantic Strike VII, said the flights will begin June 16 and last through June 19.
This time around, the participants will focus on the military's improved digital communications used for close-air operations between command units, the bombers and ground personnel.
Avon Park residents can expect some noise from the operations as low-power concrete bombs are used during the exercises.
The range has been making preparations so that the Air Force could use full-strength live bombs, even though the training next week will only use the same inert concrete bombs used in November and in previous Atlantic Strike sessions.
November's Atlantic Strike VI was coupled with another training mission that sprawled into downtown Avon Park. Soldiers were sighted on City Hall's roof top observing the area. It isn't known if such activity should be expected next week.
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