Coming right after the epically named all-caps VIKING NEBULA bomber mission earlier this month, U.S. Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa recently began another exercise named — wait for it — Turbo Weasel.
To some people, “Turbo Weasel” may sound like a character in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” video game that your parents played long long ago. It also harkens back to “Operation Sleepy Weasel,” the name of the top secret mission in the first “Hot Shots” movie, which remains one of the best pre-Global War on Terrorism films about the U.S. military.
In reality, the name underscores the “speed and mission focus” of the 480th Fighter Squadron out of Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, which is tasked with suppressing enemy air defenses, according to Senior Master Sgt Jarad Denton, a spokesman for the 52nd Fighter Wing.
“‘Turbo’ refers to the rapid generation and deployment of F-16s — demonstrating our ability to launch combat power quickly and effectively,” Denton wrote in a statement to Task & Purpose on Friday. “‘’Weasel’ pays homage to the squadron’s specialized role in the Wild Weasel mission set: the suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD). Together, the name signifies a high-tempo, combat-ready force uniquely skilled in neutralizing threats and enabling air superiority. Turbo Weasel has also been a foundational concept for Agile Combat Employment, setting the standard for how the Air Force projects power with speed, flexibility, and resilience.”
Wild Weasel pilots are so good at “suppression and destruction” that in 2017, while supporting an Army Ranger unit that was under attack, Lt. Col Craig Andrle dropped every single bomb from his F-16 in Afghanistan, then flew back to the airfield, hopped out, jumped into a new F-16 and dropped every bomb on that plane, too.
The first iteration of this year’s Turbo Weasel exercise began on Tuesday and runs until March 26, and the second is scheduled for April 8 to 17, according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa.
Stories like this allow Task & Purpose to reflect on a truism that the U.S. military seems to have forgotten until recently: Names of military operations and exercises shouldn’t be boring. The Army’s successful mission to capture Saddam Hussein in December 2003, for example, was named “Operation Red Dawn” after the legendary movie about a group of teenagers who battle a communist invasion of the United States and manage to repair a pickup truck by urinating in the radiator.
It is worth noting that the military did not name the mission for an artsy war film, like “The Thin Red Line,” because any movie that could put dead people asleep is not inspiring.
But for the past decade or so, the codenames for U.S. military operations have tended to be a little, well, lame. The U.S.-led mission to protect shipping in the Red Sea from Houthi Rebels in Yemen was named Prosperity Guardian, which sounds like two nouns stuck in a forced marriage. The U.S. and British air and missile strikes against Houthi Targets got the name Operation Poseidon Archer, which begs the question: Poseidon was the ancient Greek god who ruled the seas; how would he shoot arrows from underwater?
While the name “Turbo Weasel” may be slightly confusing to the layman, it’s certainly far from banal, and it shows that military planners can still come up with some intriguing names when they want to.
Although Russian and Chinese intelligence analysts may be trying to find some hidden meaning in Turbo Weasel’s name, the real message to adversaries is the U.S. military is finally upping its game when it comes to naming operations and exercises.
Your move, comrades.
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