Alaska-based Air Force units hosted European flyers for training last week. Fighter-jet pilots based at Eielson and Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson were joined by counterparts from Germany, France and Spain for the first-of-its-kind exercise.
After the exercise, the allied pilots gave rave reviews of Alaska’s expansive training airspace.
Arctic Defender 2024 was the first NATO-led exercise to take place in the Interior and Gulf of Alaska training areas known collectively as the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex or JPARC. The two-week aviation exercise brought together pilots and personnel from the U.S. Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, and their German, French and Spanish counterparts.
Germany organized Arctic Defender, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius commended them for their work during a visit to Eielson earlier this month.
Officials from other NATO nations also came to the Alaska to observe and be briefed on Arctic Defender, which was the first of several exercises the European servicemembers are participating in over the next few months in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We’re used to work(ing) closely with the Americans in Europe, and the Germans and Spanish as well,” said Lt. Col. Guillame Veuille, a commander with the French Air Force’s 30th Fighter Squadron.
Veuille said he appreciated the chance to fly with allied pilots around the spacious skies of the JPARC.
“The key here is the size of the range,” he said in an interview Thursday.
The JPARC includes 65,000 square miles of airspace over land, and another 45,000 square nautical miles in and over the Gulf of Alaska.
“The fighting area is really bigger than everything we have in Europe,” he said. “So for us, that is the main great advantage we have here.”
Veuille says JPARC’s expansive airspace provided the European pilots the chance to cut loose and maneuver freely.
“It was really exquisite training,” he said.
The Europeans are already in Japan for the next Indo-Pacific training exercise. The region is strategically important for the U.S. and NATO allies, and Veuille highlights that it’s also home to Tahiti and French Polynesia.
“We are doing this to show that we are protecting all French territories, even far away from France,” Veuille said.
After Japan, the NATO forces will continue their round-the-world journey with exercises in Australia, the Philippines and Singapore, then India and the Middle East before returning to Europe.
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
