HSM-49 Pilots Attend Marine Corps MAWTS

HSM-49 Pilots Attend Marine Corps MAWTS

By LT Nick “Gerber” Huffman, USN

Interoperability will be a key enabler in the success of our forces in the next major conflict. In preparing ourselves for the future fight, U.S. military forces are striving to improve their capability to integrate with dissimilar platforms across all military branches. Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron Four Nine is spearheading this integration with Marine Aviation assets in both Surface and Anti-Submarine Warfare.

HSM-49 was the first HSM Squadron to send pilots to attend the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron (MAWTS) Course as academic students. MAWTS is the Marine Corps’ approach to provide standardized, advanced tactical training and certification of unit instructor qualifications in order to support Fleet training and readiness. The Scorpions of HSM-49 attended lectures and took exams alongside these prospective Weapons and Tactics Instructors (WTI).

Scorpion participation in MAWTS academics provided insight into how the Marine Corps plans to approach the complex battle problem of an increasingly capable enemy in the maritime environment. Additionally, Scorpion presence gave Marine WTIs a better look into what the MH-60R can bring to the fight with its sensors and weapon systems.

Scorpion pilots also participated in the MAWTS Final Exercise, a concluding scenario in which MAWTS students plan, brief, and execute a simulated battle plan involving multiple warfare areas. In an effort to increase integration, this event has expanded to include anti-submarine warfare.

For the final exercise, HSM-49 employed an MH-60R to join a flight of two MV-22 Ospreys to search, detect, track, and attack an Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Target (EMATT), an unmanned subsurface target that emulates the acoustic characteristics of a submarine. The MV-22s flew specific search patterns and manually deployed passive sonobuoys while the MH-60R processed the acoustic data.

The event marked a major step forward for Navy and Marine Corps ASW integration efforts and proof of concept: that Marine MV-22s are capable of extending on-station time and substantially increasing sensor coverage during ASW missions. As "blue and green operators" work together, community-specific brevity terms, preferred flight profiles, tactics, techniques, and procedures become familiar, allowing optimized employment of sensors and weapons.