Building on relations developed during Exercise North Wind 2015, American and Japanese forces plan for a joint airborne training exercise during Red Flag 15-03 here.

Paratroopers from U.S. Army Alaska's 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division and soldiers with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force held a four-day planning conference to come to a bilateral agreement as to the training objectives for the two forces during Red Flag 15-03.

Held in the state of Alaska by the U.S. Air Force, Red Flag is a 10-day realistic air combat training exercise conducted up to four times a year at Eielson Air Force Base and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Each exercise is designed to incorporate multi-services whose military mission may differ significantly from that of other participating units, to get the maximum training possible.

"We play a part in it because of all the aircraft that come up and our airborne ability," said Capt. George Hogg, operations air officer for the Spartan Brigade and native of Abingdon, Md. "We use their exercise to conduct large jumps in a tactical training environment."

The JGSDF, having only one airborne brigade and a limited training area on mainland Japan, confines them to the number of aircraft they are able to jump out of and carry out training exercises. The JGSDF are enthusiastic to train here in Alaska with the only airborne brigade west of the Mississippi.

"We're looking forward to doing a bilateral jump with the [Spartan Brigade]," said Maj. Nao Hiro Goda, chief of training section, 1st Airborne Brigade, JGSDF. "[We're] looking to improve the interoperability between [our] two airborne units."

The training relationship between these two forces first developed in February during Exercise North Wind 2015, a two-week field training and command-post exercise hosted by the JGSDF's 27th Infantry Regiment, 5th Brigade, Northern Army at Hokkaido, Japan.

The exercise culminated with the first-ever joint airborne jump between paratroopers with USARAK's 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry Regiment, 4/25 IBCT (ABN) and the JGSDF's 3rd Battalion, 1st Airborne Brigade, Central Readiness Force, demonstrating the two forces' ability to work together at inserting elements of their forces from one strategic point to another.

"We would like to continue, not only training Japan and U.S. forces in Alaska, but also continue training like what we had at North Wind, at Hokkaido," said Lt. Col. Atsushi Miyake, deputy chief training and exercise section education and training division ground staff office, Ministry of Defense.

"We hope that our relationship between the Alaskan forces and the Japanese forces will stay strong and continue these [training events] into the future," said Miyake.

The Spartan Brigade and the JGSDF will conduct a joint forcible entry exercise as part of Red Flag 15-03.

"We'll conduct an airfield seizure and after that we'll move into situational training exercises," said Hogg.

While still in the planning stage, following the fires coordination support exercises, the Japan and American forces will come back to JBER to conduct a company combined arms maneuver live fire.

"The idea is we take the Japanese airborne infantry platoon and we integrate them directly with one company from the 501st," said Hogg.

For the JGSDF, this is the first time they've participated in an exercise like Red Flag in a foreign nation.

"I feel that by doing this kind of training bilaterally will work for us in the future," said Goda. "It may not fall under the scope of training that we have now, but as a future possibility of where we need to work [toward] bilaterally."

Goda added the Japan-U.S. relationship is only going to grow more important and needs to get stronger by doing these types of interoperability training exercises together.

While visiting Alaska, Goda expressed his amazement and wonder of The Last Frontier for its uniqueness. "It's very nice," said Goda. "There's really nothing like this in Japan." During the tour of the JBER range on Wednesday, the JGSDF Soldiers saw their first moose and couldn't believe the size of the animal.