Duluth’s 148th Fighter Wing Conducting Night Flying

The 148th Fighter Wing announced on their Facebook page they will be flying special training at night.

Even though this will be conducted at night, the Facebook post did specify that the crews would be on the ground by midnight. They did want the public to be aware when they hear jets taking off and flying at night.

The 148th Fighter Wing will be flying, what is called, Close Air Support. What is Close Air Support? According to a government survey page, it's the communication training used for direct support of ground forces with the air assets, and since the 148th are the air support they have to practice this maneuver.

The smoother it is, the easier it is to identify a target and pinpoint the shot. The ground forces identify the target, they get the air support to zoom in on the target, and then the shot is made based on their findings and with air support confirming the target.

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According to the Facebook page, this is a Special Operations Forces integration with the 148th in order to complete the training. It takes the co-operation of the 148th Fighter Wing, Joint Terminal Air Controllers or what they call Forward Air Controllers, to communicate and protect the friendly ground forces.

The 148th Fighter Wing has been practicing a lot of maneuvers and skills in the night skies to be able to perform at any time of the day or night with some of the training they have. The release to the public is a way to show respect to the community but to let them know this is something that has to be trained and practiced in order to execute flawlessly.