Rangers - Airfield Siezure

Rangers with the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment undergo Multilateral Airborne Training (MLAT).

The Rangers are training to maintain their core skills in airfield operations.

One of the Ranger's roles is to seize and secure airfields, typically for use by follow on forces.

This may be a crucial element of a special operation in a non-permissive environment.

The Rangers go in, take over the airfield then provide security against counterattack by local forces.

Other SOF elements are thus able to use the airfield to insert and extract forces and supplies in support of the current operation and as a staging area for further operations.

The foremost Ranger is covering his sector with his MK48 7.62mm x 51mm belt-fed machine gun, fitted with a M145 Elcan MGO (Machine Gun Optic).