XBradTC

So, I stumbled across this interesting, but rather poorly written, account of using the A-10 Warthog to attack swarms of small boats.

About 35 local boat captains simulated swarming attack maneuvers in fishing boats rigged with machine guns while fighter jets, attack helicopters, and the A-10 "Warthog" simulated attacks from above in Florida’s Choctawhatchee Bay.

The Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base organized the simulation, called Combat Hammer, to address one of the more pressing threats to the US Navy: attacks from swarming fast-attack craft.

In the Persian Gulf, Iran has repeatedly used small, agile attack craft to harass US Navy ships in encounters that could lead to a broader conflict in a moment’s notice.

US Navy ships have gone as far as to fire warning shots at approaching vessels, but that was before Iranian-backed Houthi militants used a suicide boat laden with explosives to kill two aboard a Saudi navy vessel off the coast of Yemen.

Contracting with local boat owners, and visually modifying them with simulated machine guns was pretty innovative.

After working with those, a live fire portion of the evaluation was conducted using unmanned target boats.

Combat Hammer is the program code name for the Weapon System Evaluation Program for air to ground weapons. It is run by the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group based at Tyndall AFB in Florida.

Essentially, after Development Test and Evaluation, and Operational Test and Evaluation, WSEP does Follow On Test and Evaluation.  FOT&E is where the tactics, techniques and  procedures to use a weapon, or a family of weapons, or even complete weapon systems, are evaluated, to give operational squadrons guidance on how best to address a given threat.

Rather than using their own fleet of aircraft, Combat Hammer hosts detachments from the squadrons that will actually be using the weapons and tactics.  Thus, in addition to  validating TTPs, the squadrons get valuable experience using weapons on a fantastic  range complex, training they might not ordinarily be able to conduct.

Combat Hammer hosts virtually every type of USAF aircraft with an air to ground capability. In addition, friendly foreign air forces are often invited to participate.

On the air to air side, WSEP also runs Combat Archer, and even has the little discussed Combat Sledgehammer, which develops TTPs for nuclear weapons.