Volk Field's Northern Lightning Exercise Completed

Friday, April 16th, 2021 -- 12:00 PM

Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center, known for lighting up the skies with the annual Northern Lightning exercise, hosted multiple units from around the country for their first exercise of 2021 from March 22 through April 2.

The two-week Northern Thaw exercise is a total force exercise providing tailored, cost-effective, tactical level, high-end combat training.  Pilots from across the nation praised Volk Field and its surrounding areas for everything it has to offer from the air space and support to the friendliness of the participating units.

Volk Field CRTC is one of the premier training installations in the country due to its expansive airspace and the quality training the installation can simulate. There aren’t many bases that offer the same potential and capabilities.

Northern Thaw provided a capstone event for student pilots going through the F-35A basic course at Luke Air Force Base, as well as fighter integration missions with Midwestern F-16 units.

Northern Thaw flew two missions per day, and with Federal Aviation Administration approval the afternoon mission also included the exercise high airspace.

This adds a great deal of training to get airspace up to 50,000 feet mean sea level for both missions, and negates the need to transit to other training areas like the Big Bear Military Operations Area in Michigan.

While at Volk the visiting units are given the chance to push their students and their aircraft to limits they may not otherwise experience at home. The airspace and surrounding units offer extra area for them to move around, it also offers them more flying time.

The units were not disappointed with the experience their students gained and even mentioned the hopes of making it back in the future to conduct similar exercises.

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