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Video by Master Sgt. Kevin Wallace

Mountain Roundup 2013 Kicks Off

366th Fighter Wing

Oct. 1, 2013 | 1:07

A multitude of various planes arrived while others already took to the skies near Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, today as the multinational combined-joint exercise dubbed Mountain Roundup 2013 kicked-off.

The exercise is part of the German Air Force Tornado Fighter Weapons Instructor Course Mission Employment (ME) Phase, and is scheduled to end Oct. 19.

The base and the 266th Range Squadron control and maintain emitter sites across almost 7,500-square miles of operational range space, and it's that access to airspace and ranges that allows for realistic, safe training and testing while providing the flexibility to accommodate the complexity of this multinational, multi-service exercise.

The end result to proper training is real-world employment.

The Air Force has become a crucial component of combined-joint operations. In Afghanistan's Regional Command-North, there's a very similar operational situation to what will be exercised here throughout the next few weeks.

In RC-N there's a large German military contingency working in union with the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines to employ forces and eliminate threats on the ground. That exact scenario will be exercised during Mountain Roundup.