National Guard troops fly HIMARS 2,000 miles for rapid strike training

Airmen from the Rhode Island National Guard and soldiers from the Michigan National Guard moved a powerful rocket artillery system more than 2,000 miles across the country this month, flying a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from Michigan to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin to test rapid deployment capabilities.

Troops from the two states’ National Guards pulled off a “HIMARS Rapid Infiltration,” or HIRAIN, over the course of June 6-13, according to a release from the Michigan National Guard. The complex drill, which saw the units fly the HIMARS to California and simulate an artillery strike, was done as part of the new Minuteman Rotation, which puts National Guard troops alongside active-duty personnel. The training is new, with the first one taking place in March. This one was the first to be done at the National Training Center.

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“The Minuteman Rotation is a specialized, high-intensity training program at combat training centers that are designed to simulate real-world combat scenarios for rotational units, in a controlled, large-scale environment,” Capt. Courtney Bonneau, Alpha Battery Commander, 1st Battalion, 182d Field Artillery Regiment, Michigan Army National Guard, said in the release.

The idea of the HIRAIN is conceptually simple, but complex: Rapidly deploy one or several M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) via airlift, fire at enemies, then quickly fly the launchers and their crew out before any counterattack can take place. Static artillery, as the military said, is “highly vulnerable” in the era of modern sensors and long-range strike capabilities. In its own announcement, the Michigan Army National Guard called the HIRAIN operation “the ultimate military execution of the “shoot-and-scoot” tactic at extreme speed and distance, in degraded conditions.”

To pull it off, the exercise required members of the 1st Battalion, 182d Field Artillery Regiment to load the HIMARS onto a C-130J operated by the Rhode Island Air National Guard’s 143d Airlift Wing. They then flew from Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Michigan to Fort Irwin, where the C-130J offloaded the rocket system.

“HIRAIN brings speed, reach and survivability to the deep fight by inserting a precision-fire platform that can be rapidly inserted to support any theater of operations,” Sgt. 1st Class Corey Morawa with 1st Battalion, 182d Field Artillery Regiment said.

The military has been testing rapid deployments of heavy firepower, both with partner nations and stateside. Last year, Marines and the Japanese Self-Defense Force worked to rapidly deploy its Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, to islands around Okinawa to simulate island defenses.

One of the most prominent bits of this fast force projection came in September 2024, when paratroopers from the 11th Airborne Division and troops from the 1st and 3rd Multi Domain Task Forces, quickly deployed HIMARS to one of the Aleutian Islands. Ferried in by Air Force and Alaska Air National Guard planes, they quickly set up radars and weapons, to demonstrate American capabilities.