Beale takes to the skies during Global Thunder 16

  • Published
  • By SSgt. Jeffrey M. Schultze
  • 9th Reconnaissance WIng Public Affairs
Beale AFB is home to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, which enhances USSTRATCOM's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission by providing mission-ready aircraft to detect and deter strategic threats against the U.S. and its allies in support of the command's Task Force 204.

GLOBAL THUNDER is an annual U.S. Strategic Command training event that assesses command and control functionality in all USSTRATCOM mission areas and affords component commands a venue to evaluate their joint operational readiness. Planning for GLOBAL THUNDER 16 has been under way for more than a year and is based on a notional scenario with fictitious adversaries.

One of nine DoD unified combatant commands, USSTRATCOM has global strategic missions, assigned through the Unified Command Plan, which also include strategic deterrence; space operations; cyberspace operations; joint electronic warfare; global strike; missile defense; combating weapons of mass destruction; and analysis and targeting.The exercise involved various base agencies practicing readiness techniques for mass deployments.