944th Fighter Wing hones combat readiness at Desert Hammer 26-2

Airmen from the 944th Fighter Wing left Luke Air Force Base for Camp Navajo from May 1–3 to run Desert Hammer 26-2, a field exercise aimed at strengthening expeditionary readiness across multiple mission areas.

Roughly 150 personnel took part, supported by Arizona Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys and a KC-130 Hercules. Training emphasized Mission Ready Airmen skills, aeromedical mission-essential tasks, and civil engineer Ready Airmen Training objectives.

Senior Master Sgt. Stephen Hunter of the 944th Fighter Wing Exercise Planning Office said the event is part of an ongoing training progression tied to the wing’s readiness goals. “We are being tasked to exercise our mission while developing battlefield skills and being ready now,” Hunter said. “While we have members downrange right now, we’re continuing to train our Airmen that we’re not tasked to deploy, and it’s a building block approach.”

Earlier iterations at Luke AFB and Gila Bend focused on reinforcing basic battlefield skills. Camp Navajo added a field environment with terrain, landing zones, drop zones and training areas unavailable at Luke, enabling more advanced scenarios.

Over three days, Airmen executed airlift from Luke AFB to Flagstaff, cargo airdrops, medical scenarios using live practice patients and high-fidelity mannequins, critical care air transport team training, land navigation, and survival training. “In fact, the Airmen downrange right now have sent messages back that they appreciate all the training over the last cycle, that they are executing what they trained at Luke Air Force Base at Gila Bend,” Hunter said. “So if there’s a measuring stick, that’s it for me. And we just have to always be as ready as we can be.”

“It’s trial by fire in combat, and so as many reps as we can get now is just what we’re supposed to be doing, and that’s why we’re here,” he added.

Lt. Col. Lance M. Waage, deputy commander of the 944th Mission Support Group, said the location helped Airmen adapt their skill sets to unfamiliar terrain and conditions. “To be able to execute our jobs in multiple or varied types of environments is really important,” Waage said. “Being up here today allows us to stretch our legs and get those reps and sets in that are very necessary.”

While the wing is widely recognized for training fighter pilots, leaders emphasized its broader, deployable support capability across the Air Force. Events like Desert Hammer are designed to knit together different specialties under realistic, expeditionary conditions. “This is a great way for every different skill set and functional area to perform under more austere conditions, sometimes simulated combat conditions, and really bring us together in a way where we’re seeing how a scenario would play out before we have to do it for the real thing,” Waage said.

The Reserve tempo adds pressure to accomplish those objectives in compressed windows. “We have only 16 hours each month to perform everything that an active-duty force does and that is a huge challenge,” Waage said. “It’s a huge testament to all the great people that come together for reserve duty.”

For exercise planners, the payoff was watching teams apply the planning to real-time execution. “We brought all the puzzle pieces here today, and then we sort of sit back and watch the fighter wing put the puzzle together,” Hunter said. “If the Airmen are happy and they’re learning and they’re more ready now, then we’re doing our job.”

With Desert Hammer 26-2 complete, the wing plans to capture feedback to refine future iterations. “Whatever small changes we can make to make it better next time, we’re listening,” Hunter said.