Air-to-Air Melees off the Georgia Coast - Sentry South Exercise Underway in Savannah

Earlier this week, an air combat exercise began at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP. Sentry South is what used to be Sentry Savannah, and although the name may have changed slightly, it is still the same exercise with mostly the same participants. This January's exercise involves USAF and Air National Guard F-22As, F-35As, F-16CMs, T-38s, and KC-135s, USMC F-35Bs, and Top Aces F-16s. Four units are working out of the Air Dominance Center in Savannah, tanker support is flying out of Hunter AAF in Savannah, and some local area units are flying out of their home bases.

ADS-B Exchange tracks of two of the KC-135s and some of the T-38s supporting the Sentry South exercise in Savannah

Sentry Savannah 2025 - F-22s, F-35s, F-16s, and T-38s Visit Savannah-Hilton Head IAP and Get Snowed In

Sentry Savannah 2025, which the Air National Guard describes as their largest and premier air-to-air fighter exercise, got underway this week at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP. This year's participants are F-22s and T-38s from the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley, F-35s from the 115th Fighter Wing at Truax Field in Madison, WI, and F-16s from the 122nd Fighter Wing from Fort Wayne ANG Station Fort Wayne, IN (some of the F-16s the 122nd FW are flying are 114th FW jets). Flying was limited, however, by a federal holiday and the Presidential Inauguration on Monday and a Winter storm that shut down the airport from Tuesday night through Friday morning. Surely the 115th FW and 122nd FW thought they were getting away from such weather when they came south for the exercise! I got to listen to them on Tuesday morning, but since I was working midnight shifts all week, it was the only listening opportunity I had before something unusual happened. Coastal Georgia received several inches of snow and ice, a rare event for us, and temperatures remained under freezing for most of Wednesday and Thursday, which kept roads as well as runways and taxiways covered with snow and ice. Since that's something we rarely deal with here in the deep south, the airport doesn't have the equipment northern airports would have to open back up quickly. Hard working Savannah-Hilton Head IAP personnel got the airport back open by Friday afternoon and some of the visiting units took to the skies.

This was my neighborhood in Savannah on Friday morning, showing why the Sentry Savannah 2025 participants weren't able to fly until Friday afternoon (there was still snow and ice in some areas on Saturday afternoon!)

Coastal Georgia Winter Storm and Sentry Savannah 2025

On Tuesday night (21 January 2025), Coastal Georgia got hit with a significant winter storm. Over Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, it dropped rain, sleet, and snow then stayed below freezing for large parts of the day on Wednesday and Thursday. The northern part of Coastal Georgia got more snow, the southern part of Coastal Georgia received more sleet and freezing rain. The results were major impacts on roads (especially local roads because Georgia DOT has been working on highways) and the closing of airports. As I write this on Friday morning, now that I'm home in Savannah, the neighborhood streets are still covered with ice and snow.

The coil on one of KF4LMT Mobile's antennas covered in ice on Wednesday morning toward the end of the winter storm

Sentry Savannah 2024 Final Report

It sounds like we can tie a bow on Sentry Savannah today. This morning I caught some 71st FS F-22s, 7th FTS T-38s, and 157th FS F-16s departing Savannah to head home. Just as I turned on the radios, I also heard something that sounded like F-35s (I never heard their callsign) with Atlanta Center getting cleared direct to Montgomery, so the 100th FS F-35s may have departed this morning as well. In one piece of good fortune this morning, I was also able to finally ID who HECKLER is; they're the 103rd ACS, CT ANG. A social media post about the exercise linked to this article, which tells how the 103rd ACS worked with the Georgia ARNG to "successfully deploy and execute a cloud-based radar and radio connection of the Tactical Operations System-Lite (TOC-L)."

Here's a final report on what I heard when I was able to listen.

Air Combat Exercise Sentry Savannah 2024 Underway at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP

Note: Updated after the 9 May 2024 morning sorties

Sentry Savannah 2024, an air combat exercise, got underway in Savannah on Monday. Described as "the National Guard Bureau’s premier counter air exercise specializing in fourth and fifth-generation fighter tactics,” it is held at the Georgia Air National Guard's Combat Readiness Center/Air Dominance Center at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP. This year's participants include F-22As and T-38s from the 71st FS and 7th FTS at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, F-35As from the 100th FS at ANGB Dannelly Field, and F-16CMs from McEntire JNGB. So far, they've been flying morning and afternoon sorties out to the SEALORD controlled Special Use Areas off the South Carolina/Georgia/Florida coast. Tanker support has been from 185th ARW KC-135Rs flying out of Hunter AAF and 157th ARW KC-46s flying out of Myrtle Beach. Intercept control is being provided by HECKLER, a callsign I've not heard before.

Update on 71st FS Training at the Savannah CRTC/ADC

I had a good opportunity to monitor yesterday afternoon's 71st FS activity out of the Savannah CRTC/ADC at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP. Based on what I heard, it sounds like this week's activity is a Sentry Savannah exercise. Unlike last week, when they flew in the afternoon and evening, yesterday the flew in the morning and the afternoon. VMFAT-501 F-35Bs and VFC-12 F/A-18s also participated yesterday, both flying out of MCAS Beaufort. Here's an updated list of frequencies and callsigns in use: