Operation PROMOTE DISSENT

Operation PROMOTE DISSENT was a Southern Alliance operation to destroy Federal communications jamming facilities. It was undertaken by elements of the 157th Fighter Squadron (South Carolina), 12th Provisional Fighter Squadron, 13th Provisional Fighter Squadron, and 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron.

Aircraft were launched from John Ryan AFB, McEntire JNGB, and Shaw AFB against targets in northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee. The first wave, consisting of two flights of four F-16s each and two flights of two F-4s each, launched at approximately 1000 on New Year's Eve, 2012. After fighting off and downing four interceptors launched from the remaining enemy airfield in Tennessee, a battle in which one F-4 crew and three F-16 pilots scored kills, the F-16 flight flying SEAD support neutralized a SAM battery defending the first target site. One F-16 was shot down in this effort, its pilot missing and presumed captured. The first flight of F-4s destroyed the first target, a cell phone tower reconfigured as a jamming system. The second, after fighting off yet another pair of interceptors, used AGM-65D Maverick infrared-guided missiles to destroy the other target, located in an urban area. The missiles were required to avoid collateral damage.