Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse ramps up air combat exercise ...

Fighter jet traffic at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse will pick up next week, when Navy squadrons undertake aerial combat training exercises. The Navy is alerting residents who live near the air station that they might see an increase in flights during the day. No night flights are planned.

A detachment of EA-18G Growler jets were expected to begin arriving Friday and though the weekend in advance of next week?s exercise, Navy officials said. Such training generally takes place over Gulf of Mexico air space off the Plaquemines and St. Bernard parish coasts.

Electronic Attack Squadron 139, based at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., began flying the Navy?s new Growlers during the past year and is heading to Belle Chasse for the exercise.

Strike Fighter Squadron 204, a Navy Reserve F/A-18 Hornet unit known as the River Rattlers based in Belle Chasse, is hosting the exercise. The squadron has dual roles: It can be activated for war and it also plays the adversary in combat training exercises, such as those next week.

Known as the Cougars, Electronic Attack Squadron 139, or VAQ 139, flew EA-6 Prowlers since the unit became operational in 1983, according to the squadron?s web site. It received the Navy Unit Commendation for its role in supporting air strikes on Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq invasion, and returned there in 2006.

The squadron also flew missions over Iraq and Afghanistan while deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Regan last year, again in Prowlers.

The squadron began flying Growlers since returning from that deployment. Growlers are equipped with special electronics installed in F/A-18F Super Hornets, which the Navy began putting into operation in 2008.

The Belle Chasse air station, which opened in 1958, regularly hosts detachments from other air bases for training exercises.

It is the first installation planned and built as a joint air reserve training center. More than 60 aircraft from each of the armed services is based at the air station, including Air National Guard F-15 Eagle fighters, Marine Corps UH-1 Huey and AH-1 Cobra combat helicopters and Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin search and rescue copters. The air station has a $346 million annual economic impact on the region, according to the Navy.

Source: http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/2012/11/air_combat_exercise_ramps_up_a.html

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