The Falcon team also flies Blue Air scenarios with the green-colored LUHs operating as friendly units.
SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT
Even though the Hohenfels Training Area covers more than 62 square miles, it is relatively small by American standards. However, the Bavarian location is unique to the U.S. Army and provides great training value. “The United States has three major Combat Training Centers – one in Germany, one in Louisiana and one in the California desert,” Rollie said. “This one is the smallest. The one in Louisiana is a little bit bigger, but the CTC in California is absolutely massive. The value of having three CTCs is that we have three very different training areas. The foliage here in Germany, combined with the rolling hills, is very different than either of the other two. Here in Hohenfels, a tank company can be moving under the trees, and a helicopter can fly almost right over them and sometimes miss them.
“The other real value of the JMRC to me is almost every exercise has some NATO partner as a participant of the exercise. So, in war we would fight as allies and here we actually train to fight as allies, which has some very unique challenges.”
anytime soon. “We are probably only about halfway through the lifespan of our airframes. There are no plans to replace them with other aircraft. There is also no decision yet on any upgrades to our current aircraft,” the CO said. “The only thing I would change with the LUH are the avionics packages. There have been improvements, mainly related to upgrading the GPS Garmin 430 to the Garmin 650, and there have been some changes in the radios. We could use newer, better radios. Current avionics work well with our NATO partners because we can plug in with most NATO radios, but we have some problems plugging in with the more advanced American units.
“Finally, I would like to shift more to include joint operations. We are called the Joint Multinational Readiness Center. The only Air Force partners here are mostly focused on Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) and Tactical Air Control Party (TACP). I would try to make the Falcon Team more air-focused and bring some more Air Force trainers here. In a perfect world, I would probably have a few fancy Cessnas out there that could fly even higher. It’s some of the joint interoperability pieces that I think we somewhat miss here.”
FUTURE PROSPECTS
Despite current global and political tensions, Rollie is positive on the Falcon team’s future. “I think the JMRC will remain in place as it is,” he said. “The JMRC, 7th Army Training Command, EUCOM, and the U.S. Army remain committed to defending with NATO allies and partners.”
Although the first Army unit started to operate the new UH-72B in September 2021, the Falcon team’s fleet will not be replaced
74 Sept/Oct 2025
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