On October 29-30 military personnel of the Lithuanian Special Operations Forces, Lithuanian Navy and the UK military aircraft trained at joint exercise in the Baltic Sea: AH-64 Apache helicopters of the British Army were for the first time firing live guided missiles according to directions of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) of the Lithuanian Special Operations Forces.
The Lithuanian JTACs and the British aircrews rehearsed quick precision strikes on targets and ensuring security of the territorial waters of Lithuania in the Baltic Sea in complex tactical conditions.
The British helicopters were firing AGM 114 Hellfire guided missiles. Different variations of the missiles are designed for destroying armoured equipment, vessels, building structures and manpower within them, and other targets. Most of the variants are laser-guided, the missile can be lock onto its target from the launching aircraft or another aircraft, or a JTAC. The attacks were carried out in four stages and refuelling at a Forward Arming Refuelling Point (FARP) at the Kairai Training Area, instead of a military base, in between. It has been an exceptional exercise also because the airstrikes were controlled not from a land site but from aboard the Lithuanian Navy LNS Dzūkas (P12).
Joint Terminal Attack Controller is an extraordinary military qualification to which the largest of conventional weaponry obey. Such specialists use different methods for target identification and marking, call in and coordinate fire of large artillery systems, ship weaponry, attack helicopters, fighter aircraft, and strategic bombers.
Photo credit: Sgt Spc Ieva Budzeikaitė
