Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing tcml-3

by Tom Clancy

  Nellis is home to the USAF Weapons and Tactics Center (W&TC, formerly the USAF Fighter Weapons Center), which expends over 45 % of the USAF's practice munitions worldwide! Commanded by Lieutenant General Tom Griffith, the W&TC runs a range complex that covers much of southern Nevada. At any given time, there are almost 140 aircraft based at W&TC, flying some 37,000 sorties each year. The core of the W&TC is the 57th Wing (formerly the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing), whose personnel are distinguished by checkered yellow and black scarves worn with their flight suits. It is commanded by Colonel John Frisby, and its units include:

  • 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES)—Flying a combination of A-10A Thunderbolt IIs, F-15C/D/E Eagles and Strike Eagles, and F-16C/D Fighting Falcons, the 422nd TES is tasked with operation testing and tactics development for the USAF fighter force and their weapons.

  • USAF Weapons School (WS)—This is a 5 1/2-month, graduate-level course in weapons, tactics, and strike planning. While only 7 % of USAF aircrews are WS graduates, over 45 % of wing commanders have attended the school. One measure of the effectiveness of WS training is aircrew performance during Desert Storm, where only 7 % of the crews had successfully completed WS, but 66 % of the air-to-air kills were accomplished by WS grads. The current curriculum includes a course for virtually every type of combat aircraft in the USAF inventory, as well as a special course for E-3 controllers. In 1994, the school was commanded by Colonel Bentley Rayburn.

  • 561st FS—Flying the F-4G Wild Weasel version of the Phantom, this is the last remaining active-duty squadron dedicated to the SEAD mission in the USAF. In recent years the squadron has been deployed to Turkey to support the air embargo over northern Iraq, and to Italy to fly similar operations over Bosnia. This highly respected and heavily tasked outfit is headed into its sunset years. The squadron has twenty-four PAA aircraft, with an additional eight F-4Gs as spares and pipeline aircraft.

  • 414th Training Squadron (Adversary Tactics Division)—With the deactivation of the 64th and 65th FSs, which were tasked with the adversary mission, this detachment of F-16C/D aircraft provides the W&TC with a small force of aggressor aircraft for realistic training.

  • Detachment 1, Ellsworth AFB—This small detachment of B-1B and B-52H heavy bombers fulfills the same mission for the bomber force that the 422nd TES does for the fighter force. They are co-located with the 28th BW at Ellsworth AFB, but report back to the 57th Wing. Eventually, there will also be a B-2 detachment at Whiteman AFB, Missouri.

  • The Thunderbirds—This renowned air demonstration squadron performs at air shows all around the world. Presently, they fly the Block 32 F-16C and — D Fighting Falcons. In 1994, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Anderson led the T-Birds through a demanding schedule of some seventy-two air shows, thrilling millions of viewers. The unit has eight aircraft, eleven officers, and between 130 and 140 enlisted personnel in any given year. An assignment to the Thunderbirds is a high honor, reserved for the best of the best, since this team, more than any other unit, represents the U.S. Air Force to the public.

  • 549th Joint Tactics Squadron (JTS)—Known as "Air Warrior," the 549th provides simulated close air support and debriefing services to the U.S. Army National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, about one hundred miles to the southwest. They fly the F-16C/D, and can now show visitors the results of their strikes in real time, thanks to a special data link to the NTC "Star Wars" building (a complex of high-tech three-dimensional real-time displays).

  • 66th Air Rescue Squadron (RQS)—This is one of four RQSs that were activated following the poor performance of the U.S. Special Operations Command in the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission during Desert Storm. Combat Search and Rescue gives aircrews confidence that if they are shot down behind enemy lines, well-trained and well-equipped professionals will be on the spot to find them and bring them home. When you read down the list of Medal of Honor recipients, you'll find quite a few CSAR aviators who sacrificed their lives trying to save others. When there are pilots around the bar, CSAR crews never have to buy their own drinks. Composed of 4 HH- 60G Pave Hawk helicopters and a HC-130 Hercules tanker/C31 aircraft, the RQSs provide rapidly deployable CSAR forces, as well as supporting emergency rescue, safety, and security operations at Nellis AFB.

  • USAF Combat Rescue School—Designed to provide a graduate-level Combat Search and Rescue training curriculum, the school flies the same HH-60G/HC-130 aircraft as the 66th RQS. In 1994, Lieutenant Colonel Ed LaFountaine commanded the school. The plan is to graduate two classes per year, as well as to provide testing and evaluation services for CSAR squadrons worldwide.

  • 820th Red Horse Squadron—This highly prized civil engineering unit can rapidly deploy anywhere in the world. Given a steady supply of water and concrete, the engineers can build a full airbase complex in a matter of days.

  • Federal Prison Camp (Area II)—There is a medium security federal prison camp located on the Nellis base complex. One notable recent prisoner was former Undersecretary of the Navy Melvin Paisley, convicted on corruption charges in the late 1980s.

  • 554th Range Squadron—Commanded in 1994 by Colonel "Bud" Bennett, this organization monitors range safety and controls the flight activities for Nellis AFB and the various ranges to the north. In addition, the squadron provides local air traffic control for the FAA, feeding into the LAX control center in Los Angeles.

  The twelve-thousand-square-mile/3 1/2-million-acre range complex fans out north of Las Vegas. There is enough range space to put the whole nation of Kuwait inside, with room to spare. Divided into a series of different ranges, or "areas" as they are called, the whole complex is instrumented with an electronic system known as the Red Flag Measurement and Debrief System (RFMDS). An aircraft flying over the complex can be constantly monitored, providing a continuous record of everything that happens overhead. Each area has a specific function. Some are live-fire gunnery and bombing ranges, while others have arrays of manned radar emitters designed to simulate enemy air defense systems. These include:

  • 60-Series Ranges—Test and evaluation, as well as WS training goes on here.

  • Ranges 71 and 76—Deep strike-type targets that simulate a strategic weapons factory, SCUD launch sites, and an airfield.

  • Range 74—This area simulates a Soviet-style mechanized battalion.

  • Range 75—Simulates a follow-on supply convoy, typical of Iraqi columns attacked during Desert Storm.

  These ranges are maintained by contractor personnel from Loral and Arcatia Associates, who spend their days servicing the target arrays and keeping the radar emitters working. There is also a Cubic Corp. Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) system, which can record and play back every movement and simulated weapon-firing in air-to-air combat engagements involving many aircraft. This instant-replay capability is heavily used by the Weapon School for after-action debriefings, in which pilots can review every mistake in slow motion from any three-dimensional viewpoint. Also located in the range complex is a legacy of the Cold War: the old nuclear testing range for the Department of Energy (DOE).

  No account of Nellis AFB and its ranges would be complete without mention of the three (officially acknowledged) airfields inside the complex. The first of these is Indian Springs Airfield, where the Thunderbirds practice their routines. Indian Springs is also an emergency divert field during exercise and other activities. Farther north is the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) Air Base, which was constructed and used by the 37th TFW when they operated the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter. Following the Gulf War and its public exposure of the "black jets," the USAF transferred the 37th's aircraft and personnel to the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Today, Tonopah is frequently used by reserve and Marine aviation units to simulate operating out of a bare-bones base in the field. The last of the bases that we know about is the mysterious Groom Lake Test Facility, located in the heart of the Nellis AFB/DOE range complex. Based around a large dry lake, Groom Lake is similar in function
to the USAF's main test facility at Edwards AFB, but the intense security would make you think the Russians were still coming. Known also as Area 51 and Dreamland, it was used during the testing of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane in the 1950s. It has been used ever since as a base for testing black (classified) aircraft, including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the D-21 reconnaissance drone, and the F-117A. It is also reportedly home to exploitation (i.e., technical evaluation) programs for foreign aircraft (MiGs, etc.), as well as black prototypes and technology demonstration aircraft. Whatever goes on there, the USAF is trying to expand the range boundaries to include several desert ridge lines that overlook the area, so civilian observers cannot see any part of the complex directly.

  But our interest now at Nellis AFB has nothing to do with the black activities at Groom Lake; we've come to observe what goes on in the open light of day. In a word, Flags. The Flag-series exercises simulate real-world combat conditions in a relatively safe and secure environment. The best known of these is Red Flag, which started running in 1975. Conceived by the legendary Colonel "Moody" Suiter, Red Flag grew out of an alarming statistic of the war in Vietnam. If a pilot survived his first ten combat encounters, his chances of surviving a full combat tour would increase by over 300 %. Such combat encounters help build "situational awareness," making an aircrew much more able to survive in the deadly air defense radar and missile thickets that the USAF has to penetrate. So Colonel Suiter got this bright idea: If you could provide those first ten combat missions in a safe stateside training environment, you might lose fewer aircraft and crews when a real war came along. Such training would also allow units to practice the complex art of strike warfare in large formations. Red Flag is designed to give every aircrew in a combat unit those first ten missions up on the Nellis AFB range complex, facing the most talented enemy force they will ever see. Every combat crew is supposed to go through at least one Red Flag during each two-year flying tour, to keep their flying and combat skills honed to a razor's edge. About six Red Flags are run annually, each consisting of a six-week training exercise, divided into three two-week segments.

  The core unit is usually a combat wing. Each squadron from the core wing flies fifteen to twenty simulated combat missions during its two week training period. Supporting aircraft detachments (AWACS, tankers, jammers, etc.) make the training even more realistic. For twenty years, Red Flags have helped U.S. and allied combat aviators to prepare for war. The value of this training was proven in 1991, when aviators came back from missions over Iraq declaring, "It was just like Red Flag, except the Iraqis weren't as good."

  Green Flag is a special exercise that runs each year at Nellis. Green Flag might be called a Red Flag with "trons and teeth." Instead of practice bombs, Green Flag uses real bombs. Instead of simulated jamming and electronic countermeasures, Green Flag exposes aircrews to the full spectrum of electronic nastiness that can appear above the modern battlefield. Green Flag's only compromises with realism are that participants don't shoot live ammunition or real missiles at fellow aviators, and no planes are allowed to crash and burn.

  Green Flags are very expensive, and difficult to set up. Vast amounts of weapons and decoys are expended during the simulated missions "up north." It isn't easy to assemble a force of scarce electronic warfare (EW) aircraft, such as the RC-135 Rivet Joints and the EC-13 °Compass Calls, which are heavily committed to monitoring actual and potential crises around the world. Nevertheless, the USAF runs Green Flag each year to teach combat pilots how to operate in a full-scale electronic warfare environment. Green Flag is also an opportunity to test new tactics and equipment in a "near war" situation.

  For 1994, ACC decided to dedicate the third rotation period (known as Green Flag 94-3) to testing the capabilities of the 366th Wing and the composite wing concept. The exercise would include a full overseas-style deployment, complete with the construction of a field-style Air Operations Center in a tent city next to the Red Flag headquarters on the south end of the base. Could a composite wing really function in a bare-bones field deployment? Could other units plug in to the 366th Wing's unique command and control structure? It would be a crucial test for the composite wing concept, and we were invited to observe the results. So in early April 1994, we headed west to join the 366th in their mock war, just outside the gambling capital of the country.

  GREEN FLAG 94-3—GUNFIGHTERS SUPREME

  When we joined the 366th Wing at Mountain Home AFB, General McCloud was already getting ready to head down to Nellis AFB. With several days to get acquainted with the wing and its people, it was not too tough to sense the collective anxiety over the coming Green Flag test. We spent most of the next several weeks with the wing, and what follows is a "war diary" of the high points. It was an unprecedented inside look at how a unit like the Gunfighters would go to war.

  Saturday, April 9, 1994

  We rose to a cold, rainy morning at Mountain Home AFB, and headed over to the 366th mobility office for processing. Instead of flying to Nellis AFB via commercial airliner (the standard procedure to save money as well as wear and tear on Air Force transports), the entire Wing would ride down on the FAST tankers of the 22nd ARS, just as if we were going to war; and we rode with them. The previous day, the first two FAST aircraft flew down to Nellis, taking with them an A package of eight F-15C Eagles, eight F-15E Strike Eagles, 8 F-16C Fighting Falcons, and four KC-135Rs. Since the new 34th BS with their B-1Bs were still getting organized, this trip would be fighters and tankers only. We were going to ride with about sixty members of the Gunfighters aboard FAST-3, the first aircraft to depart on this cold, wet morning.

  At the mobility office we stacked our bags in a large, open wooden crate, sat down to have a cup of coffee, and listened to the safety and mobility briefing. In a little while, it came time to board the aircraft and head off. Once we and our gear were loaded, the four CFM-56 engines were started, and we took off. Heading south, we were shown around the aircraft by the crew chief/boomer. We got a look out of the boomer's position at the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, and a chance to "fly" the boom. Later, we went forward to learn about navigation from the attractive navigator, Captain Christine Brinkman. "Brink," as she is called, might look like a high school cheer-leader, but she is one of two experienced female navigators in the 366th Wing. Nobody on our flight crew that day was as old as the airplane, which was manufactured by Boeing in FY-1960!

  After learning from Brink how to navigate by "shooting the sun" through a sextant in the aircraft's ceiling, we sat back and enjoyed the relatively smooth, though noisy, ride of the venerable airplane. To help with the noise, the crew chief handed out little yellow foam earplugs. The cold inside the passenger compartment was another problem. We had been warned about the -135's poor heating system, so each of us wore a leather jacket to ward off the chill. Less than two hours after takeoff, we turned into the Nellis AFB traffic pattern to land. A few minutes later we taxied up to the transit ramp and cranked up the cargo hatch to disembark our gear. We had exchanged the rainy weather of Idaho for an unseasonably warm spring in southern Nevada.

  The 366th Wing Air Operations Center (AOC), located adjacent to the Red Flag building at Nellis AFB. During Green Flag 94-3, the wing personnel in this tent city generated the Air Tasking Orders that were used by the Blue Forces. John D. Gresham

  Flocks of aircraft from units around the country were already arriving, and you could feel the excitement in the air. But the first job was to get the deployment team, ourselves included, bedded down for the duration of Green Flag. Though Nellis is a huge base, like so many others around the USAF, it is desperately short of temporary billeting quarters. Thus, most of the deployed personnel are billeted off base in a variety of hotel rooms and guest quarters in nearby Las Vegas. This housing arrangement is not considered a hardship by the aircrews, who eagerly headed off to collect rental cars from nearby McCarren Airport and claim their rooms. We stayed at a small hotel with the personnel of Lieutenant Colonel Clawson's 391st FS. By sun-down, the
Strike Eagle crews had staked out the swimming pool and were discussing the best places to eat and gamble. Since Nellis is only a day's drive from Mountain Home, many of the aircrews' wives and girlfriends had driven down to share two weeks of fun and sun in Las Vegas. This deployment was a real favorite among family members, even though it was going to be a busy two weeks.

  Sunday, April 10, 1994

  While most of us had a day to relax and rest, the personnel of Lieutenant Colonel "Tank" Miller's Operational Support Squadron were working hard setting up the wing's AOC in a small tent city in a side yard next to the Red Flag operations building, preparing the first of the Air Tasking Orders (ATOs). Even though the first missions of Green Flag 94-3 were not scheduled for two more days, the writing and cross-checking of ATOs needed to start at least seventy-two hours before they were actually executed. The Ops staff were working hard at their computer terminals to put together a Joint Integrated Prioritized Target List (JIPTL, the master list of bombing targets), as well as the Master Attack Plan for the entire exercise. Another vital document was the Air Coordination Order (ACO), which specified how the airspace around Nellis would be managed, or "deconflicted," to minimize the risk of a midair collision or other unpleasant incident. All this planning was supervised by Lieutenant Colonel Rich Tedesco, a combat F-15/WSO with a gift for assembling all the details that go into making an ATO.

  An innovation that would be tried for the first time during Green Flag 94-3 was to pull all of the photo-intelligence data for the wing from the new U.S. SPACECOM Space Warfighting Center (SWC) at Falcon AFB, Colorado. The SWC would process photographs taken by surveillance satellites, as well as information from other space-based assets, and immediately feed them to the 366th AOC over a satellite data link located adjacent to the communications tent. The wing would have no manned photo-reconnaissance aircraft for the exercise. Since only a handful of tactical reconnaissance aircraft remain in service, this reliance on satellite imagery for strike planning is quite realistic. The AOC crew would work late into the nights that were ahead, never really getting the rest they needed, but always reacting to the changes that are an inevitable part of the ATO building process.