Virginia National Guard Soldiers and Airmen provide weather forecasting and aviation support Feb. 21 for Global Guardian 2012, a joint Army and Air Force exercise held at the Georgia National Guard Combat Readiness Training Center in Savannah. More than 1,300 personnel from 20 different states including flying units, medical units and support units as well as members of the Royal Netherland Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force participated in the exercise that began Feb. 13 and concludes Feb. 24. Units from the active and reserve Air Force and Army as well as Army and Air National Guard took part in the exercise designed to prepare units to deploy, conduct direct and indirect combat operations and redeploy safely to home base. Airmen from the Sandston-based 200th Weather Flight provided weather forecasting support and soldiers from the Sandston-based Detachment 1, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment provided aviation support with Lakota helicopters for reconnaissance, VIP and troop transport and casualty evacuation training. Virginia Guard pilots flying F-22 Raptors also took part in the exercise flying simulated combat missions from Langley Air Force Base.