Combat Aircraft Monthly 2014-11.pdf

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GUARDIAN
AH-64E APACHE
UNIT REVIEW
69TH FIGHTER SQUADRON ‘WEREWOLVES’
Vol 15, No 11 | www.combataircraft.net
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The 56th Fighter Wing at Luke AFB has started training new
pilots with the Litening advanced targeting pod.
report:
Jamie Hunter
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T
HE 308TH FIGHTER
Squadron ‘Emerald Knights’
at Luke AFB has started
training new F-16 pilots with
the latest standard of advanced
targeting pods. Having
previously employed the older LANTIRN
pod system on its Block 42 F-16C/Ds, the unit
has now integrated the advanced Litening
Gen 4 pod into its syllabus.
The commander of the 308th FS, Lt Col
Christopher Bacon, told
Combat Aircraft:
‘The Litening Gen 4 pod represents,
technologically speaking, a tremendous
leap forward in combat technology over
the ‘legacy’ LANTIRN system. The new
pod employs infra-red and television video
modes and has an IR pointer, both of which
increase pilot situational awareness in the
battlespace and when engaging hostiles.
Multiple upgrades to picture quality,
integration with Link-16, advanced air-to-air
sensor capabilities and direct co-ordinate
hand-off with air-to-ground weapons result in
improved support to the soldiers, airmen, and
marines on the ground. It would be, simply
put, impossible to execute most aspects
of armed overwatch and NTISR missions
without these critical targeting pod advances.
Even our core mission of offensive counter
air, with sub-sets of
SEAD, DEAD and surface
attack, are more readily executable
with these technological improvements.’
Bacon continued: ‘Luke [AFB] is now,
fortunately, the beneficiary of this technology
boom and we are sharing in the pod
procurement from active-duty, Guard and
Reserve counterparts. We now own the
responsibility of training our students in the
operational art of targeting pod employment.
All F-16 graduates at Luke eventually arrive
at a Combat Air Force (CAF) F-16 unit
equipped with either Sniper or Litening
pods. The sooner we can expose them to the
capabilities, the quicker they become experts
in air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons
employment. No longer are they required to
unlearn habit patterns adopted using ‘legacy’
LANTIRN systems. At the end of the day,
Luke AFB graduates a higher-quality product
and lessens the training burden on the CAF.
It’s a win-win situation.’
A 308th FS F-16C carrying a
Litening targeting pod and live
Mk84 iron bombs.
Jim Haseltine
18
October 2014
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October 2014
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What’s inside
news
HEADLINE NEWS
The latest news from the Iraqi air
operation as France joins strikes
Vol 15, No 11 November 2014
6
8
64
Exercise Report:
New Partners
Ioannis Lekkas reports as two high-profile units of the US Air Forces in
Europe, the 494th and 480th Expeditionary Fighter Squadrons, deploy to
Greece for bilateral training with the Hellenic Air Force.
Ioannis Lekkas
US NEWS
Latest news from the F-35
program, Textron AirLand eyes T-X
competition with new Scorpion
variant, and X-47 goes to sea for
joint operations trials
18
WORLD NEWS
Chinese J-11 proves too close for
comfort for US Navy P-8 Poseidon,
and Singapore appears to have
boosted its F-15SG eet
28
UNIT REPORT:
WEREWOLVES
Rens van Rijn and Dennis Vink make for Luke
AFB to meet the Air Force Reserve personnel
of the 69th Fighter Squadron. They are the
‘Werewolves’…
70
UNIT REPORT:
36
THE ‘ECHO’ APACHE
The US Army has begun to eld the
latest model of the Boeing Apache attack
helicopter, the AH-64E Guardian.
Barry D. Smith heads into the desert with the
Army aviators of C Company, 1-25th ARB,
as they train with the ‘Echo’ at the National
Training Center (NTC)
Ted Carlson/Fotodynamics.com reports on
VAW-120 ‘Greyhawks’, the US Navy’s E-2/C-
2 Fleet Replacement Squadron at Naval
Station Norfolk, Virginia, exploring the
work of this unit as it introduces the latest
E-2D Advanced Hawkeye variant
GREYHAWKS, GREYHOUNDS,
AND HAWKEYES
22
EUROPE NEWS
Tornado marks 40 years of ying, rst
RAF A400M ies and latest Baltic Air
Policing news
PLUS:
Robert F. Dorr’s Front Line column and all the
latest military Losses
78
SPECIAL REPORT:
10 YEARS OF LUFTWAFFE
EUROFIGHTER
42
EAGLE SCHOOL
The 173rd Fighter Wing is currently the only
American F-15C formal training unit (FTU)
and produces every new airman in the US
Eagle community, as Robert F. Dorr details.
Exclusive photos by Jim Haseltine
Stefan Büttner and Alexander Golz were
there as Taktisches Luftwa engeschwader
73 ‘Steinho ’ celebrated three anniversaries
during an open house event at its Laage
base in north-east Germany
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80
GLORY DAYS:
52
THUNDER IN
PAKISTANI SKIES
Pakistan, together with its Chinese partners,
is now looking for export customers for the
JF-17 Thunder as production gathers pace
and the aircraft becomes operational with
the Pakistan Air Force. Rogier Westerhuis
visited Pakistan to learn more about the
aircraft
MANNED MISSILES
OVER THE BALTIC
For many years during the Cold War the
F-104 was a mainstay of NATO forces in
Central Europe. Dr Stefan Petersen recalls
ying with the last Star ghters of the
German Navy
88
EXERCISE REPORT:
RIMPAC 2014
Kevin Jackson attends the world’s largest
international maritime exercise, ‘Rim of the
Paci c’ (RIMPAC), which brings together the
armed forces of nations with an interest
in the Paci c Rim region and involves a
signi cant aviation element
58
DUTCH LIGHTNING
The 33rd Fighter Wing’s transition to the
F-35 is progressing rapidly, not just for US
forces but also international partners. Frank
Visser went to the F-35 Integrated Training
Center to report on the Royal Netherlands Air
Force and its increasing presence in the F-35
program. Exclusive images from
Frank Crébas/Bluelife Aviation
96
CUTTING EDGE
Combat Aircraft’s
monthly column reporting
from the front line of aerospace technology,
by David Axe
A 173rd Fighter Wing F-15C Eagle punches
out decoy ares. In this issue we look at
Eagle training in Oregon.
Jim Haseltine
Combat Edge
CARRIER
KINGS
An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to VFA-15 ‘Valions’
launches from the ight deck of the USS
George
H. W. Bush
(CVN 77) armed with a live AGM-65
Maverick.
US Navy/MCS3C Brian Stephens
CONTRIBUTOR
PROFILE
KEVIN JACKSON
evin Jackson is a London-
based freelance contributor
to
Combat Aircraft Monthly.
Born in 1962 under the flight path
of London’s Heathrow Airport, his
passion for military aviation, and
photography, stems from
childhood visits to the Biggin Hill
Air Fair and the Farnborough Air
Show with his father. Kevin still
dedicates as much time as possible
K
to traveling the world to report on
exercises, units and aircraft,
conveying his passion for his
subjects through his photography
and writing. Primarily specializing
in United States military subject
matter, working with the military
to convey their story is something
he feels very privileged to do. In
this issue Kevin covers the
RIMPAC 2014 exercise.
4
November 2014
www.combataircraft.net
THIS
MONTH
HIGH RISK
O
nce again this month we are
reminded of the perils of military
aviation — in this case the
collision of two F/A-18Cs taking
part in operations from the USS
Carl Vinson
as part of Carrier Air
Wing 17, at sea in the Pacific Ocean. The accident
on September 12 during ‘routine flight operations’
resulted in the loss of a 26-year-old naval aviator.
LT Nathan Poloski from Lake Arrowhead,
California, died in the accident, the second pilot
being recovered safely. Our thoughts go out to LT
Poloski’s family and friends.
Carrier operations are amongst the most skilled
and treacherous of all disciplines of military
aviation. While this unfortunate accident occurred
during routine training, it is worth reminding
ourselves not only of how these pilots are called
upon to meet the demands of operations from
the carrier deck, but also that they enter into
dangerous combat situations in order to complete
their missions.
It is pilots from Carrier Air Wing Eight who are
now flying routinely over northern Iraq, and who
may even be asked to push across the border into
Syria, on the trail of Islamic State (IS) militants.
This involves flying over some of the most hostile
territory in the world. As this is being written,
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
assets are building an electronic picture of the
formidable Syrian air defense network.
The carrier represents an important piece of
American ‘real estate’, carefully positioned to be
able to project air power wherever and whenever
it is needed. As a coalition is built in the region,
we may eventually see one of the most significant
air operations since ‘Desert Storm’ of 1991. While
such an undertaking would not be on the same
scale, it would be no less important. Air power is
once again being called upon, as it has been almost
continually over the past two decades.
Jamie Hunter,
Editor
E-mail: jamie.hunter@keypublishing.com
www.combataircraft.net
November 2014
5

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