Activity

To the every day Joe, this looks cool and exciting. To the “tin-foil” alt crowd, it is Jade Helm, hair raising stuff. I have been a part of similar operations, even in LA. It boils down to training, for the assaulter’s, the recon elements who “prepped the area”, the support/logistics teams and especially the pilots. All elements of the equation above, are operating in a “real world” environment, where they are unfamiliar with the area and thus, the unexpected obstacles. This creates rapid problem solving situations as well as challenging maneuvers. The pilots alone, from the 160th “Night Stalkers,” get to fly low and fast through one of our countries biggest cityscapes.

Personally, I see it as cost effective training for US SOF troops. There are only so many “urban jungle” training centers in the US, this lets those troops put their training to work in a controlled environment. As an added bonus, its great for recruiting.