Rangers - Multilateral Airborne Training

Rangers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment setup security positions during Multilateral Airborne Training (MLAT) at McChord Airfield, 2014.

Multilateral Airborne Training prepares Rangers for airfield seizure operations, one of their core mission sets.

Rangers mantain the skill set required for airfield seizure as this mission may be one they are called on to perform at short notice, without time for rehersals.

MLAT prepares the various company, battalion and regimental commanders for the complex planning and organization required in sending in the Rangers to take over an airfield in a foreign country.

It also prepares the Rangers at the sharp end - the soldiers tasked with assaulting and holding the objective.

MLAT is a multi-week program that trains the Rangers in the various insertion platforms - such as CV-22 Osprey aircraft, MH-47 Chinook, MH-6 and MH-60 helicopters, C-17 and C-130 transport planes and Ground Mobility Vehicles (GMVs) - used to insert and later extract the assault force.

Rangers train to parachute and fast-rope directly onto the objective as well as to insert by transport aircraft to a nearby location then drive on to the airfield.

Airfield siezures are typically conducted at the battalion level - although smaller air strips may be handled at the multi-platoon or company level while some objectives may require multiple battalions, or even the whole 75th Ranger Regiment.

The MLAT training cycle beings with smaller scale assaults and works it way up to battalion level operations.

The Ranger pictured above is armed with a M4a1 carbine fitted with Daniel Defense Rail Interface System II (DD RIS II), SpectrDR scope, AN/PEQ-15 laser and Insight MX visible light.