Exercise HYDRA COIL > 183D Wing > Article Display

183d WING, SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The 183d Wing, Illinois Air National Guard, held an on-base exercise, Exercise HYDRA COIL, Nov. 4, 5 and 6, 2022. Exercise HYDRA COIL focused on demonstrating the 183d Wing's ability to generate, employ and sustain forces at a Main Operating Base (MOB) to a Forward Operating Site (FOS) in an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) scenario.

In July, the Air Force announced its new vision for operating in modern, contested environments. According to the Air Force, "Adversary threats to Air Force operations at forward bases can deny U.S. power projection, overwhelm traditional defense designs, impose prohibitive losses and lead to joint mission failure. To address these challenges, ACE shifts operations from centralized physical infrastructures to a network of smaller, dispersed locations or cluster bases."

Exercise HYDRA COIL gave 183d Airmen the opportunity to simulate having already been deployed to a MOB and moving to a FOS in an ACE scenario to increase readiness for a possible deployment scenario. The exercise simulated deployment events, security events and contested, degraded, operationally limited (CDO) events.

Twelve core objectives were targeted when planning and executing Exercise HYDRA COIL. They all centered around squadron and flight readiness and ability to perform jobs in a mobile, deployed environment.

Exercise HYDRA COIL is the first in four exercises the 183d Wing will conduct, getting gradually more intense each time, to ensure Airmen are as prepared as possible to be mission ready in any situation.