JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- The U.S. Air Force Defender Challenge 2020 will pit Security Forces teams against each other in San Antonio, Texas, May 11-15, 2020.
Defenders will prove their abilities in dismounted skills, endurance, agility, individual weapons, and military working dog teams through a series of gut-testing challenges. This year, Air Force Security Forces expanded the competitor pool to 19 teams from across U.S. Air Force major commands, U.S. Army Military Police and with coalition partners.
Air Force Director of Security Forces Brig. Gen. Roy Collins said his intent is to demonstrate improved Defender lethality and readiness to defend personnel and resources in any environment to ensure mission success.
“Our Defenders will push themselves to the breaking point in these readiness trials to showcase the capabilities we bring to the fight, while displaying our competitive spirit and camaraderie that makes us unique,” said Collins.
This year, the challenges are tougher. The dismounted skills assessment, known as combat endurance, will measure strength, endurance, agility, teamwork, leadership, problem solving and knowledge of core skills. Competitors can expect to encounter multiple training objectives throughout the patrol to test their grit and measure the team’s cohesion and resiliency, such as medical aid, fire and maneuver and land navigation.
The combat agility competition objective will test functional fitness and the ability to execute tasks in a field-based evaluation under stress.
The weapons challenge evolved into a practical application where shooters will engage in scenario-based shooting events at the individual, pair and fire team levels in the near, middle and far distances. This event will require active engagement, quicker reaction to situations and higher weapons expertise to prove proficiency on weapons.
A new event this year pits premiere MWD teams against a series of dismounted skills assessments in much the same manner as the combat endurance competition. The MWD and handler will be judged as a team through a series of patrol and explosives detection-based field problems.
But there is more to this year's Air Force Defender Challenge 2020 than just the competition.
Not only will those events determine the most lethal and ready team, “they will also inform us of things we need to do in our training capacity to help create the best Defender warfighter for the Air Force," said Chief Master Sgt. Tamara Hartz, security forces career field manager. "Training is the foundation that makes us more lethal and more ready.
“We updated our training over the past few years as part of the Reconstitute Defender Initiative. By looking at how our Defenders accomplish these events, we can fine-tune our training programs moving us from qualified to proficient in our core skills using lessons learned from this year’s competition to improve them,” explained Hartz. “Using Defender Challenge as both a showcase for talent and a way to assess training needs, we will continue to develop more lethal and capable security forces Airmen.”
Many of the teams who competed in 2018 will be back to defend their titles. Others will use this year's event to take them from them. In 2018 Pacific Air Forces won the Defender Challenge title by taking first in the weapons competition, placing second in the dismounted operations challenge and scoring well in combat agility.
In winning the weapons competition, PACAF displayed the highest marksmanship skills of all teams in that category. They won the Coleman Cup, named after Brig. Gen. Richard Coleman, former U.S. Air Force Security Forces Center director of security forces and commander from 1997 to 2000.
Air Mobility Command won the Sadler Cup, presented to the top team in the dismounted operations challenge, and named after Maj. Gen. Thomas Sadler, who served as Air Force Chief of Security Police from 1975-1977.
United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force Regiment previously held the trophy since winning it at the 2003 Defender Challenge.
In the combat endurance relay event, the German Air Force came out on top, and Lance Cpl. Adam Butler of the RAF team won the Outstanding Defender Award for demonstrating exceptional leadership throughout the competition.
“This year’s event will continue to evaluate our tactics, techniques and procedures and build upon our lessons learned, while working jointly with our world-wide partners, both in competition and crosstalk,” said Collins. “More lethal and more ready!”
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