Exercise Venture Spirit has taken place for the second time in 2024, training the RAF’s Air Mobility Force in Agile Combat Employment skills alongside the wider RAF Brize Norton Enterprise.
Agile Combat Employment involves operating from an unfamiliar setting whereby aircraft launch, recover, and are maintained from a variety of operating locations, while working with allies and partners. This time the exercise was held in Northern Ireland with Flying Station Aldergrove providing the backdrop for a simulated deployment location.
The exercise brings together several sections the Air Mobility Force work with day to day at RAF Brize Norton, including movers, emergency services, air despatchers and tactical air traffic controllers, giving the opportunity for the RAF Brize Norton enterprise to train together in one exercise.
Squadron Leader Spence, Detachment Commander, said:
“We are taking crews on the frontline operational Atlas squadrons from a newly qualified status to a place where they are putting their skills into practise. We’re having them employ the use of the aircraft and their abilities in an agile environment with a dynamic and flexible flying programme. For this exercise we’ve based from Aldergrove but also used Brize Norton and Leuchars as well as flying on the east coast of Scotland to simulate operational environments”.
Squadron Leader Spence
Detachment Commander
Exercise Venture Spirit
During Venture Spirit crews improved their skills and knowledge of the Atlas C Mk..1 (A400M), flying tactical low-level sorties in the Scottish Highlands, dropping light stores to a drop zone in the Rannoch Moor area and practicing essential flying skills within a threat zone.
Exercise Venture Spirit takes place several times a year, utilising varying locations each time to continually train new and existing skills enabling our forces to deploy at a moment’s notice and operate away from home base.
