Twice a year, the seven week Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course is held at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, Arizona. The main objective of the course, as the name suggests, is to train weapons and tactics instructors for the Marine Corps. Only the most experienced pilots are selected to gather at Yuma for the WTI course as it is used to increase their knowledge over and above their existing training certifications. This means that they will become experts in their chosen field which then means that they can act as squadron-level instructors when they get back to their units.

To be selected to participate in WTI, the pilot needs to be recommended by his immediate boss and then meet a number of stringent requirements. The chosen pilot must have a required number of certified skills that can only be obtained by undertaking a large number of flying hours and land based courses. Something that separates WTI from other instructor courses is that it assembles the best pilots from all aircraft types that the USMC utilises. This means that during the exercise, MCAS Yuma will be home to a variety of aircraft types that do not normally operate from the base.

Normally, MCAS Yuma is home to the umbrella organisation Marine Air Group 13 (MAG-13):

• Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 “Green Knights” (F-35B Lighting II)
• Marine Attack Squadron 211 “Wake Island Avengers” (AV-8B Harrier II)
• Marine Attack Squadron 214 “Black Sheep” (AV-8B Harrier II)
• Marine Attack Squadron 311 “Tomcats” (AV-8B Harrier II)
• Marine Fighter Training Squadron 401 “Snipers” (F-5N Tiger II)

During the WTI course, all the other aircraft and helicopter types at the disposal of the USMC arrive at MCAS Yuma including the F/A-18 Hornet, EA-6B Prowler, KC-130 Hercules, MV-22 Osprey, UH-1Y Huey, AH-1Z Viper and CH-53E Super Stallion along with AV-8B Harriers from other units than those home-based at Yuma.

In the third week, students are divided further into groups by type. They then run a number of lectures specific to each aircraft. These lessons include both looking at the systems on board each aircraft, the types of weapons that are available and how these systems and weapons can best be used in combat. When this part of the WTI is over, the focus moves from the academic to the practical phase where the students put into practice all they have learnt in the classrooms.

In the first week of the practical course, students continue in the same groups from the last week of the academic part, ensuring that pilots of each aircraft type train together. This means that pilots feed off each other’s ideas whilst learning to master all the weapons systems and tactics they had learned during the study periods.

In week two of the practical course, the pilots begin flying with other aircraft types. Again, they are split up by fixed wing and rotary types flying together. At this stage there will not be any mixed missions whereby jets and helicopters fly the same mission. This week is to enable the students to learn the tactics behind the missions.

In the third and final practical week, it all becomes merged and all types fly with everyone, so that fighter pilots learn the tactics behind flying missions with helicopter pilots and vice versa. A WTI course involves approximately 230 students and an instructor staff of around ninety. However, more instructors can be brought in as befits the need. These instructors will all be former WTI pupils.

Occasionally, there will be students from other countries on a WTI course. During April 2013, there were pilots from the Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force taking part. Pilots and aircraft from the US Navy and US Air Force also participate in relevant phases of a WTI course when needed.

The main purpose of the air component of the USMC is to provide air support for ground troops and this is a recurring theme throughout the WTI course. There is also a full battalion of Marines involved in the practical part of the WTI course to participate in many of the missions that in particular, the helicopter pilots are flying. In addition, they also implement other exercises whilst they are at Yuma in order to maximize their benefits from the time at the base.

WTI exercises are organized and managed by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1). MAWTS-1’s history can be traced back to the period after the Second World War when the first Marine pilots began operating from Navy aircraft carriers. In order to achieve the best training the decision was made in the early 1950s to create so-called Special Weapons Training Units (SWTU) on both the east and west coasts.

In the 1960s, the use of conventional weapons was added to the training syllabus in the SWTU. Over time, the SWTU’s grew larger and were renamed the Marine Air Weapons Training Units (MAWTU), being located at MCAS Cherry Point in North Carolina and MCAS El Toro in California.

In 1975, a commission was established to examine how the training of Marine pilots could be improved and made more efficient. This work resulted in the formation of the WTI exercises, the aim of which was to train Marine pilots to be instructors for their colleagues in their home unit.

In the autumn of 1976 and spring of 1977, WTI courses were held at both MCAS Cherry Point and MCAS El Toro. In May 1977 and February 1978, the first two combined WTI courses were held at MCAS Yuma, Arizona. Due to the great success of the combined WTI course at MCAS Yuma, MAWTS-1 was created at MCAS Yuma on June 1, 1978.

When MAWTS-1 is not conducting the WTI courses, the instructors travel to Marine Corp units around the world. Here they teach, among other things, some of the certifications needed to be eligible for the main course. Moreover, it is MAWTS-1 which is responsible for updating all the training manuals that are used by Marine Corp flying units and they are also responsible for developing and updating the tactical manuals.

Just outside of Yuma, near the Mexican border, is one of the USMC’s training areas. Inside the exercise area, is the town called Urban Target Complex (R-2301-West), which is known to the Marines by the far easier title of Yodaville – named after the radio call sign of the pilot who had the idea for the city, Major Floyd Usry. The city is made ​up of containers stacked in multiple levels, with streets, painted doors and windows. The city is used to train Close Air Support (CAS) in urban areas and it is the first of its kind in the United States.

During a WTI course, Yodaville used to train both the Forward Air Controllers (FAC) and pilots in CAS in urban areas. The FAC who is undergoing training is on the ground within Yodaville. The instructor with them points out which targets in the city that needs to be hit, for example, a particular window in a building. Then it is the FAC’s task to explain to the attacking pilot circling above the city which target is to be struck. The pilot then illuminates the target with his laser pod and drops a laser-guided practice bomb at the target, hopefully hitting it correctly.

To make things a bit more realistic, a group of Marine foot soldiers take up positions with heavy machine guns next to the FAC team, ready to “defeat” different targets within the city. This teaches the FAC to call in air support while shots are being fired around them. Likewise, there are also troops with simulated heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles nearby, so pilots can come “under fire” while they carry out their attacks.

It was explained that when you are so close to the target, you can actually hear a hissing sound in the air a few seconds before the bomb hits its target. One can also clearly see the precision with which modern precision weapons can hit their targets, often with laser-guided bombs cutting through the containers less than one meter from the chosen window the FAC designated. This kind of precision is required when providing CAS in urban areas and the training that both the FAC’s and the pilots get in Yodaville is obviously invaluable when they are sent to war zones around the world.

One of the final elements of the WTI course has long been known as Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO), designed to train pilots to retrieve American civilians from an area where they were in danger.

From the WTI course in April 2013, this part was changed to a Humanitarian Aid/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) exercise. The purpose of this was to simulate a humanitarian response to a disaster area. The exercise takes place in a small local park not far from MCAS Yuma and the object is to fly personnel and supplies into a zone where there has been a humanitarian and/or natural disaster. This is a type of mission that the USMC are more and more frequently tasked to perform around the world and therefore it has been included in the WTI in order to optimize the tactics used.

As mentioned, the HA/DR exercise takes place in a small local park rather than one of the major training areas that are otherwise abound the Yuma area as this gives the pilots far more realistic training in how to fly and land in civilian areas where there are many more obstacles that must be taken into account during the approach, for example trees, lamp posts and traffic on the ground.

For the pilots landing in the park, there is not much difference between NEO and HA/DR. Those who feel the biggest difference are the troops on the ground. Now it is no longer just a matter of getting a group of civilians on board the helicopters, but to also unload a large amount of equipment from the helicopters once they have landed, whilst also keeping the area secure and safe.

The first task is undertaken by the large CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters flying in the Marines that are tasked with securing the landing area and to keep the local population at a safe distance so that the subsequent helicopters can land safely. Once the area is secured and a ring of soldiers has been formed around the landing area, two landing spots are marked and the next two helicopters are called in. At the same time, two UH-1Y Huey helicopters circle above to provide support from the air if it is required.

The next to land at the park are doctors and their medical equipment, the plan being that a treatment centre will be set up close by where they can treat injured people. A steady stream of CH-53 helicopters’ then arrive two-by-two landing at the park landing site. When they have landed and the dust has settled, they are unloaded by soldiers on the ground as quickly as possible so that their time in the park is minimized.

During our visit amidst the flow of CH-53 helicopters, there was suddenly a lot of noise and commotion when a group of “locals” tried to penetrate the secure area. As per their training, the Marines in charge of security quickly got the situation under control by stopping them from entering and detaining them so that the operation could continue smoothly.

As darkness began to fall, there was a report of an injured soldier and it was therefore necessary for one of the two UH-1Y Huey helicopters to land and pick up the wounded Marine.

The exercise continued even after nightfall, where the large CH-53 helicopters continued to land two by two in the now dark park. All-in-all, the whole exercise was not only good for realistic training for the USMC personnel, but it also gave the local population of Yuma a fine opportunity to see the USMC in action.

Large thanks are due to Cpl. William Water-Street, Public Affairs, MCAS Yuma, and MAWTS-1 for enabling this article to be written.