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 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.
Phase two of Sling Stone used MDA’s missile intercept to allow the joint force to detect, track, and simulate engagement of the threat. During the event, a Standard Missile-3 Blk IIA, fired from a vertical launch system at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, intercepted a surrogate Medium Range Ballistic Missile target more than 200 nautical miles off the coast of northeast Guam, which was air-launched from an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III.
Simultaneously, the Navy’s Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69), operating off the coast of Guam, detected, tracked, and simulated engagement of the missile, providing air defense coverage 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.
