1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,000 2 00:00:06,050 --> 00:00:07,550 Southern Strike is a joint 3 00:00:07,550 --> 00:00:10,050 multinational exercise hosted by the 4 00:00:10,050 --> 00:00:12,310 Mississippi National Guard right here 5 00:00:12,310 --> 00:00:14,532 in the Combat Readiness Training Center 6 00:00:14,532 --> 00:00:16,910 in Gulfport Mississippi with over 2000 7 00:00:16,910 --> 00:00:18,910 service members across all branches 8 00:00:19,030 --> 00:00:21,730 were conducting a full spectrum of 9 00:00:21,730 --> 00:00:23,380 operations , including 10 00:00:23,390 --> 00:00:26,000 counterinsurgency , noncombatant 11 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,340 evacuation , maritime operations , 12 00:00:28,780 --> 00:00:30,890 special forces operations and 13 00:00:30,890 --> 00:00:32,334 conventional operations . 14 00:00:39,980 --> 00:00:43,910 Anytime we 15 00:00:43,910 --> 00:00:46,210 do a military exercise , it benefits 16 00:00:46,210 --> 00:00:48,154 the state in a number of ways that 17 00:00:48,154 --> 00:00:50,210 introduces the men and women who are 18 00:00:50,210 --> 00:00:52,321 bringing in here to do the training , 19 00:00:52,321 --> 00:00:54,321 it introduces them to Mississippi , 20 00:00:54,321 --> 00:00:56,321 shows my hospitality , what a great 21 00:00:56,321 --> 00:00:58,650 state we are , mm hmm . 22 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,780 Mhm . We are better 23 00:01:04,780 --> 00:01:08,290 prepared for our combat missions if we 24 00:01:08,290 --> 00:01:11,890 bring in our partners uh across the 25 00:01:11,890 --> 00:01:14,640 services uh in this exercise in 26 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:16,920 particular , we've got Navy and Marine 27 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,030 working side by side with the Army 28 00:01:19,030 --> 00:01:21,200 National Guard , Air National Guard , 29 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:23,700 we have Air Force Army , we have 30 00:01:23,710 --> 00:01:26,060 reserve forces here . Uh we have a 31 00:01:26,060 --> 00:01:28,440 total of about I'm gonna say 33 Air 32 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:30,329 Force National Guard units here , 33 00:01:30,329 --> 00:01:32,384 working together from many different 34 00:01:32,384 --> 00:01:35,090 states and we have about about 20 Army 35 00:01:35,100 --> 00:01:37,211 National Guard units working here and 36 00:01:37,211 --> 00:01:39,211 then we supplement that with active 37 00:01:39,211 --> 00:01:41,870 Duty partners uh and overall , I think 38 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:43,991 we've got about 20 states represented 39 00:01:43,991 --> 00:01:44,991 here . Yeah , 40 00:01:51,690 --> 00:01:55,210 yeah , we are always 41 00:01:55,210 --> 00:01:57,432 inviting international partners to come 42 00:01:57,432 --> 00:01:59,543 here and play with us , so to speak . 43 00:01:59,543 --> 00:02:01,599 And they get a lot of benefit out of 44 00:02:01,599 --> 00:02:03,432 seeing the way we do our special 45 00:02:03,432 --> 00:02:05,432 operations , how we do our Tactical 46 00:02:05,432 --> 00:02:08,190 operations in the field , how we deploy 47 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,080 our operators this year . We've got to 48 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:13,090 Uzbekistan , they are always coming 49 00:02:13,090 --> 00:02:15,257 back and training with us . They are a 50 00:02:15,257 --> 00:02:17,479 strategic partner from Mississippi . We 51 00:02:17,479 --> 00:02:19,257 trained with him on a number of 52 00:02:19,257 --> 00:02:21,368 occasions over the course of any year 53 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:25,290 as we work across the joint branches , 54 00:02:25,740 --> 00:02:27,850 all the components , developing 55 00:02:27,850 --> 00:02:29,961 relationships , learning each of each 56 00:02:29,961 --> 00:02:32,072 and every one of our functional areas 57 00:02:32,072 --> 00:02:34,530 and our abilities to fight in a large 58 00:02:34,530 --> 00:02:36,363 scale combat operations . Really 59 00:02:36,363 --> 00:02:38,197 exciting to be able to have that 60 00:02:38,197 --> 00:02:40,363 opportunity to do that here right here 61 00:02:40,363 --> 00:02:44,360 in gulfport Mississippi . Mhm . 62 00:02:46,350 --> 00:02:48,517 The Combat Readiness Training Center , 63 00:02:48,517 --> 00:02:50,850 we focus on aviation operations , both 64 00:02:50,860 --> 00:02:53,970 Air Force and Army rotary wing and 65 00:02:53,980 --> 00:02:56,120 fixed wing operations . We also have 66 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,350 operations that take place across three 67 00:02:58,350 --> 00:03:01,070 states at different training facilities 68 00:03:01,070 --> 00:03:03,700 including Camp Shelby , Meridian , 69 00:03:03,700 --> 00:03:07,390 Naval Air Station and Avon Park 70 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,860 florida . Mm hmm a lot , 71 00:03:11,930 --> 00:03:15,850 wow . So I think the exercise went 72 00:03:15,850 --> 00:03:18,510 very well this year I asked the staff 73 00:03:18,510 --> 00:03:21,680 very early on to incorporate uh some 74 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,820 new concepts as we turned to a near 75 00:03:24,820 --> 00:03:27,570 peer and peer fight . So we asked them 76 00:03:27,580 --> 00:03:31,500 to incorporate some new concepts uh 77 00:03:31,510 --> 00:03:33,677 differently from how we've operated in 78 00:03:33,677 --> 00:03:36,060 the past . Uh maybe start sharpening 79 00:03:36,060 --> 00:03:38,390 our skills on those new concepts of 80 00:03:38,410 --> 00:03:40,470 going to a peer to peer fight and 81 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:42,960 incorporating those into the exercise . 82 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:45,150 Okay , okay . 83 00:03:48,540 --> 00:03:52,210 Mhm fix it . In this year's Southern 84 00:03:52,210 --> 00:03:55,340 Strike , we were able to exercise agile 85 00:03:55,340 --> 00:03:57,284 combat employment , which is a new 86 00:03:57,284 --> 00:04:00,550 concept for employing forces into 87 00:04:00,550 --> 00:04:04,050 combat uh in the airport . We were able 88 00:04:04,050 --> 00:04:07,900 to stretch our airmen , we were able to 89 00:04:08,340 --> 00:04:10,700 to put them to the test and grow them 90 00:04:10,700 --> 00:04:12,700 in their tape to be able to execute 91 00:04:12,700 --> 00:04:13,700 this medicine . 92 00:04:16,540 --> 00:04:20,250 Okay . Mhm . Mhm . 93 00:04:25,140 --> 00:04:27,307 One of the primary training objectives 94 00:04:27,307 --> 00:04:29,590 is the relationship that we're gonna 95 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,000 improve and develop across the joint 96 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,000 spectrum between the Navy Air Force 97 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,150 Army and the Marines , both the reserve 98 00:04:37,150 --> 00:04:39,010 components National Guard , Back 99 00:04:39,500 --> 00:04:42,060 through this Southern strike exercise , 100 00:04:42,140 --> 00:04:44,140 we strengthen those relationships , 101 00:04:44,140 --> 00:04:46,307 which means that we will be successful 102 00:04:46,307 --> 00:04:48,529 later on as we go out and fight and win 103 00:04:48,529 --> 00:04:50,029 our nation's wars . Yeah . 104 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:58,150 Mhm . Mhm .