Watch Iowa National Guard Mission “Formidable Shield” in the UK

It's not often you get to witness this. Most Iowa National Guard training missions happen in places and times that are not disclosed. However, new videos show many of our fighting men and women training overseas in the United Kingdom for "Operation Formidable Shield".

Defense Now shared training videos showing the hard work that goes on with the Iowa National Guard preparing for logistics in the event of a real conflict.

The planes mentioned by the pilot are KC-135 Stratotankers. It's vital for aerial refueling:

The KC-135 Stratotanker provides the core aerial refueling capability for the United States Air Force and has excelled in this role for more than 60 years.

The Air National Guard website provides some background for what "Operation Formidable Shield" is and what the training is for:

U.S. Air National Guard units from Iowa, Maine and Ohio are participating in the multinational missile defense exercise Formidable Shield 2021 in the United Kingdom this week. Formidable Shield is a biennial live-fire exercise to test participating nations integrated air and missile defense systems using NATO command and control.

As the Iowa National Guard pilot mentioned, they need to work closely with units based in sometimes wildly different locations like Germany and Scotland. The often inclement weather in the UK adds another level of difficulty to planning and execution of their orders.

You can check out the full article on the official National Guard website for more on Operation Formidable Shield and how it involves our Iowa Air Guard forces.