MCAS Yuma WTI Training Includes Humanitarian Assistance Urban Landing Simulation

Marines assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) conducted a Foreign Humanitarian Assistance simulation as part of the current Weapons and Tactics Instructor course, the semi-annual seven-week training program that has made MCAS Yuma one of the Marine Corps' premier advanced aviation schools.

WTI 2-26 runs from March 8 to April 26, 2026, placing this week's humanitarian assistance evolution squarely within the course's final and most complex training phase. The Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course is a seven-week period of instruction hosted by MAWTS-1 at Yuma that incorporates Marine Corps planning and implementation of advanced air and ground tactics through a series of escalating evolutions in order to produce certified Weapons and Tactics Instructors.

The Foreign Humanitarian Assistance exercise, known internally as Assault Support Tactics 3, or AST-3, pulls training off the base and into the streets of Yuma itself. The WTI course conducted its Foreign Humanitarian Assistance exercise in Yuma, with aircraft landing in a local neighborhood to practice how to deliver aid in response to crises overseas. The main landing zone is Kiwanis Park near Eighth Street and S. Magnolia Avenue, a public park that transforms into a simulated disaster zone as rotary-wing aircraft descend into its open fields.

The overall purpose of the exercise is to give Marines realistic training in providing foreign humanitarian assistance to another nation while conducting noncombatant evacuation operations in an urban environment. Scenarios played out during the evolution include medical care, food and water distribution, security, resupply, and extraction.

The urban landing component is a deliberate challenge. Unlike flight operations at Barry M. Goldwater Range, where aircraft can approach without obstruction, the Kiwanis Park setting forces crews to manage rotor wash, confined airspace, and proximity to civilian structures simultaneously. A UH-1Y Venom helicopter assigned to Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 conducted simulated rooftop insertion training at Deuce Village within the Berry M. Goldwater Range near Yuma. The exercise underscored the Marine Corps' emphasis on preparing rotary-wing crews for precision access and vertical maneuver in dense urban combat environments.

Deuce Village serves as a premier training facility designed to replicate realistic urban environments, and the ability to use rooftops increases the options crews can offer the ground force they are supporting.

The WTI course runs twice yearly, and each iteration draws aviation units from across the Marine Corps to Yuma for what amounts to a graduate-level curriculum in integrated air and ground tactics. Weapons and Tactics Instructors serve as squadron training officers who use their skills to act as aircraft and weapons subject matter experts, providing their units with proper training and evaluation to ensure exceptional combat readiness. The FHA evolution, staged in a real American city with role-players simulating displaced civilians, is one of the few moments in the course when the training spills into public view, making visible to Yuma residents the kind of complex, real-world missions these pilots and ground forces are being certified to execute.