If you’re hearing rumbles and roars coming from up above over the next week or two, you might be hearing the sound of Northern Lightning.
It’s not a new weather phenomenon, but Northern Lightning is a military exercise involving nearly 1,000 personnel from some 20 active duty Air Force, National Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps units from around the nation. The tactical-level, joint training exercise – which is headquartered at Volk Field in Juneau County, puts the soldiers through simulated battles in the air aboard a variety of what’s described as the world’s most advanced aircraft including the F-35, F-22, and F-16 fighter jets.
Colonel Ben Staats, the exercise director, said that pilots and crews can expect to operate in a contested environment with adversary aircraft, electronic jamming and simulated surface-to-air threats, exercises that he said are critical to building readiness for the threats and missions the nation faces.
Sheboygan is one of 22 counties that can expect increased military flight operations overhead. That’s likely because the military maintains a controlled air space over Lake Michigan that can be used for just such a purpose. In the past, it enabled military exercises at Camp Haven – now the home of Whistling Straits – and the “Rockets for Schools” program which launched rockets into the upper reaches overhead.
Northern Lightning will run through August 19th.
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