Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing

by Tom Clancy

  The Bold Tigers may soon gain additional weapons due to the cancellation of the AGM-137 TSSAM missile. These might include the AGM-130 version of the GBU-15, or the folding fin version of the AGM-142 Have Nap. The Strike Eagles of the 391st are also planned to acquire GPS receivers, JTIDS, and possibly satellite communications terminals, allowing commanders to order quick-reaction strikes on unbriefed targets while the planes are already in the air. When these improvements are completed in a few years, the fangs of the Tigers will be sharper still.

  34th Bombardment Squadron (The Thunderbirds)

  When the 366th Wing was put together in 1992, one of the more controversial decisions was inclusion of a small, but powerful, bomber squadron of B-52Gs. The big bombers have traditionally belonged to the Strategic Air Command and trained for global thermonuclear war. But as the nuclear deterrent bomber mission has gradually faded away, the B-52s have acquired more conventional capabilities. The “BUFFs” (the traditional nickname for the B-52; it stands, in polite company, for Big Ugly Fat Fella) of the 34th BS were equipped with “big beam” ordnance racks for carrying the AGM-142 Have Nap, and could launch the AGM-84 Harpoon and mines, as well as the AGM-86C cruise missile.

  The official badge of the 34th Bombardment Squadron, the “Thunderbirds.” U.S. Air Force

  Originally formed as the 34th Aero Squadron in 1917, and later known as the “Thunderbirds,” it brought a rich tradition to the 366th. It was one of the squadrons which supplied aircraft (B-25Bs) and crews for the famous Tokyo Raid by Jimmy Doolittle in 1942. Later, it saw service flying B-26s in the Korean War. It took delivery of its first B-52s and was renamed the 34th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) in 1963 at Castle AFB, California, serving there until its inactivation in 1976. The squadron was reformed in July 1992 as the heavy bomber squadron for the 366th. After the retirement of the B-52G force, the squadron was reformed a few months later in April 1994 at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, as a B-1B Lancer squadron.

  The 34th is commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Hopper, a highly professional, intense officer in his late thirties. A career bomber pilot, he has taken the challenge of rebuilding the 34th BS as a personal passion, and it shows. The challenges are many (especially in light of the B-1B’s well-reported systems problems); and the 34th is fortunate to have the 28th Bombardment Wing (BW) as its host unit at Ellsworth AFB. Thanks to the leadership of Brigadier J. C. Wilson, Jr., the Bones of the 28th BW have exceeded the demanding performance standards mandated by the Congress in the Dakota Challenge Operational Readiness Inspection. As a unit making a transition to the B-1B, the 34th BS has benefited greatly from a close relationship with the highly experienced people of the 28th BW.

  When they received their allotment of six PAA aircraft (the squadron carries a total of eleven B-1Bs on its balance sheet), they faced some severe challenges: The loss of the BUFFs in the Fall of 1993 eliminated the wing’s long-range standoff weapons capability (the AGM-142 Have Nap, etc.). And the B-1B has always had a reputation as a “hangar queen” (an aircraft that spends most of its time indoors, waiting for repairs, spare parts, technical manual revisions, or software bug fixes). Nevertheless, they saw some opportunities in the Bone that the B-52 could not offer. These included:• Vastly superior performance, especially in speed, maneuverability, and bomb capacity.

  • Superior low-level penetration capability.

  • Greatly reduced radar and IR signature (about 1/100th as much as the B-52).

  • Excellent avionics, including a Synthetic Aperture Radar, sensitive RWR, and a powerful radar jamming system.

  • The best communications suite in the 366th Wing, including a UHF satellite communications terminal for in-flight target data reception.

  • A precision weapons upgrade plan (CBU-87/89/97 with wind correction kits, GBU-29/30 JDAMS, AGM-145 JSOW, GPS receiver, etc.), which is part of ACC’s “Bomber Roadmap.”

  The commander of the 366th Wing’s 34th Bombardment Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Hopper (right), on the ramp with one of his line officiers. He has been the driving force behind getting the 34th combat ready in just six months from its reformation. John D. Gresham

  With these capabilities, it is easy to see why Lieutenant Colonel Hopper and his squadron like to call their B-1Bs “Mo Bones” or “Mean Bones.” In the short run, unfortunately, not all these capabilities will be available. In particular, JDAM and JSOW will slip some years in the future, despite the best efforts of the USAF Materiel Command and ACC. Nevertheless, Tim Hopper has his own ideas about how the wing might use the B-1B in combat. Some of them include:• Command and Control—The wing might use the B-1B as a C3I platform, using the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capabilities of the Offensive Avionics Suite and the Bone’s excellent communications capabilities much like a mini-JSTARS platform.

  • Standoff/Escort Jamming—With the planned retirement of the EF- 111A Raven force scheduled for FY-1997, the B-1B might function as a jamming platform for the 366th Wing, using the Bone’s ALQ-161 defensive countermeasures suite. With electronic warfare birds in short supply, the B-1B’s RWR system might be able to supply radar targeting data to HARM-carrying F-16s from the 389th FS, if appropriate data links like JTIDS or an Improved Data Modem can be installed.

  • Composite Wing Strike—With all the attention precision-guided weapons receive these days, it is sometimes forgotten that many potential targets for a unit like the 366th are of the “area” type, like troop concentrations, rail yards, truck parks, factories, etc. Area targets require large numbers of relatively small weapons to do significant damage, and the Bone is perfect for the job. With the B-1B capable of carrying up to eighty-four Mk 82 500lb./227.3 kg. bombs or several dozen CBU-87/89/97 cluster bombs, the rest of the wing could use their SEAD and PGM capabilities to neutralize SAMs and AAA, after which the Bones could come in and lay waste to a target area.

  Lieutenant Colonel Hopper and the 34th achieved a major step with the Global Power/Global Reach mission mentioned earlier. Now, they are looking forward to the planned system upgrades that will make them even more dangerous. When the massive construction project at Mountain Home AFB is completed in a few years, they can join the rest of the wing in Idaho.

  Bridging the gulf between the fighter culture and the bomber culture can be a struggle for both communities. General McCloud told us a story about the first composite strike exercise that the 366th ran with the Bones. Several B-1B crews briefed with a strike force from the four other squadrons and headed down to the Nellis AFB ranges to run the mission. Afterwards, when the mission was debriefed, the pilot from one of the bomber crews confessed, “We did not understand a word you guys said on the radio.” They have come a long way from that inauspicious beginning. When you consider what was achieved after just six months of operations, you can understand what Tim Hopper has accomplished.

  22nd Air Refueling Squadron

  The 22nd Air Refueling Squadron (ARS) is the only flying unit in the 366th Wing that does not shoot or drop things that explode. Yet, it is the key to the 366th’s ability to instantly deploy and generate combat missions. Dave McCloud and the rest of the wing treasure the 22nd ARS more than diamonds . . . or even new -229 engines for all the fighters. Only two combat wings within ACC have their own tanker assets, and there is nothing more precious in air warfare than airborne fuel!

  The 22nd ARS was one of the four original flying squadrons at Mountain Home AFB when the wing was reorganized back in 1992. Its first commander is Lieutenant Colonel John F. Gaughan II, whose boyish good looks conceal a razor-sharp mind. Originally formed in 1939 as a heavy bomber unit, the 22nd flew the B-17, B-25, and A-26 during World War II in the Pacific and China before being disestablished in 1945. Reborn in 1952 as an airborne tanker squadron flying KC-97s, it has served with SAC and ACC ever since. Along the way, the 22nd also flew the EC-135 before it was disestablished at the end of the Cold War in 1989. Like the rest of the 366th squadrons, it was reformed in 1992.

  It was originally equipp
ed with noisy, smoky, fuel-guzzling 1950s-era turbojets, but the 22nd’s aircraft have now been refitted with modern CFM- 56 turbofans to improve fuel economy and offload capacity. They are surprisingly young, at only about thirteen thousand hours of flight time average per airframe. Since the tankers have so little flight time, they avoided many of the stresses of repeated takeoff, pressurization, and landing cycles that eventually wear out an airframe. The USAF is currently planning to fly the KC- 135s until roughly the year 2020, a career of almost sixty years!

  The official badge of the 22nd Aerial Refueling Squadron. U.S. Air Force

  As for the 22nd ARS itself, because there is a lot of room in the KC-135, even when it is full of fuel, there is a lot more to their mission than just the complex aerial dance that allows fuel to pass to other aircraft. Still, the 22nd ARS is quite skilled at its primary job. For example, in fourteen days of operations at Green Flag 94-3 with just four aircraft, the 22nd flew ninety-seven sorties, refueling several hundred tactical sorties. Meanwhile, the big, open main compartment in the fuselage of the tanker can hold a lot of stuff. This includes:• Personnel Transport—Each KC-135 can transport up to eighty passengers with their personal gear. This is enough to establish a small air-base cadre at their destination, as well as helping to relieve the burden on the limited resources of the Air Mobility Command (AMC).

  • Cargo Transport—While they are currently limited to cargo which can be carried onboard by human muscle power, the aircraft of the 22nd ARS can help out in the transport mission by taking on bulk cargo and lashing it carefully to the existing plywood floors.

  • Mission Planning/C3I—During the hours the wing staff is in the air deploying to a crisis, these very people need to be getting ready to launch the first air strikes. In particular, the strike-planning staff needs to be close to its CTAPS terminals, taking in the latest intelligence and targeting data and generating the Air Tasking and Fragmentary Orders that must be finished before the first airplane can be loaded and fueled. Thus, Colonel Scott and the Operations Group staff came up with the “FAST CONOPS” plan. Four of the 22nd’s tankers, loaded with personnel and equipment, fly ahead to make the host site ready to start operations as soon as the combat aircraft arrive. As quickly as possible after an alert order, the first KC-135, known as FAST-1, would fly to the crisis area with a site survey team to evaluate exactly what the wing will need to deploy. Shortly after this, FAST-2 arrives with an Air Operations Center (AOC) team and the WICP (Wing Initial Communications Package) satellite communications equipment aboard. FAST-3 would carry the C3I element, with their CTAPS gear set up to work while in flight. Finally, FAST-4 would carry a staff of maintenance personnel and aircrews (in crew rest) to ready the aircraft and fly the first mission when they arrive in the crisis zone. In this way, the wing could fly its first mission within a few hours of arriving at the host airfield.

  This capability is vitally important to the wing’s planned CONOPS scheme, and could make all the difference in a crisis.

  The 22nd ARS is working hard to improve its capabilities to support the wing. Although times are tough, and money for upgrades of support aircraft are short, there are continuing efforts to make the 22nd’s aircraft more capable, which include:• Communications—Provisions are being made to install a UHF satellite communications terminal aboard each of the tankers. This will allow transmission of high-quality intelligence data, images, and teleconferencing to and from the FAST aircraft while in flight.

  • Cargo Handling—One of the really big improvements is replacement of the KC-135s’ original plywood floors with special fixtures, called Roll On/Roll Off (Ro/Ro) aluminum alloy floors, which will allow them to carry palletized cargo. This will greatly expand the variety of cargo the 22nd’s tankers can carry, and help out a bit with the transportation crunch of getting the wing and all its stuff to the operating theater.

  • Navigational Systems—A NAVSTAR GPS receiver is being installed to help with navigation and planning, as well as improving the accuracy of the autopilot. This should help in easing the aircrew workload, reducing fatigue on trans-oceanic flights when the 366th deploys.

  These improvements will enhance the capabilities of the 22nd, though Lieutenant Colonel Gaughan and the rest of the wing’s leadership still have a long wish list. At the top of the list is trading in the KC-135s for bigger, more modern KC-10 tankers, which can both pass and receive fuel in-flight and carry a large load of palletized cargo and personnel. This would allow the 22nd to both deploy and refuel while traveling overseas. Right now, it can only do one at a time. Unfortunately, these aircraft are closely held by the Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB, Illinois. Another item on the wish list is the installation of a refueling receptacle on the squadron’s aircraft, a modification known as the “T-mod,” which would make them into KC-135RTs. Again, though, money is the limiting factor in all of this, and the wing will probably have to make do with what it already has for the next few years, at least.

  392nd Electronic Combat Range Squadron

  The 392nd Electronic Combat Range Squadron was formed in 1985 to provide realistic electronic range training to the EF-111s of the 366th Wing when it had the standoff jamming mission within the USAF. Today, under its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lynn B. Wheeless, USAF, it runs the facilities at Saylor Creek weapons training range.

  366th Logistics Group

  Combat units eat up a lot of supplies. Just one mission by the six B-1Bs of the 34th BS would use up 117 tons of bombs and over 148,250 gallons/551,886 liters of jet fuel. That is one mission by just one of the squadrons that might be controlled by the 366th Wing, and it in no way includes food, water, spare parts, black boxes, and all the other supplies that make a modern combat unit work. In high-intensity combat operations, the full 366th would consume several thousand tons of supplies a day, every day. Without a proper flow of supplies, the Gunfighters are just ground targets for some other air force to kill.

  Commanded by Colonel Lee Hart, the 366th Logistics Support Group is composed of four squadrons responsible for supply, maintenance, and transportation. Without ground support personnel, there would not be anyone to load the bombs, fuel the planes, turn the wrenches, and move the cargo.

  366TH LOGISTICS SUPPORT SQUADRON. Originally known as the 366th Sub Depot when it was formed in November 1942, the 366th Logistics Support Squadron is commanded by Major Louis M. Johnson, Jr. Redesignated in 1992, it has a mission to provide the wing with a steady supply of spare parts, tools, and equipment to help keep the 366th’s aircraft in the air. As such, it handles ordering, storing, and distribution of thousands of items that go on or into the wing’s airplanes.

  366TH MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT SQUADRON. First activated in 1953, the 366th Maintenance and Supply Squadron is commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ward E. Tyler III. Its mission, as you might guess, is to repair, test, and maintain all of the aircraft and other equipment that the wing carries on its books. This is a huge task, partly because the 366th has five different aircraft types, not to mention the variety of computers, generators, ramp service carts, test equipment, etc.

  366TH SUPPLY SQUADRON. First stood up in 1953 with the other units of the Logistics Group, the 366th Supply Squadron is currently commanded by Major Jerry W. Pagett. Major Pagett and his team are tasked with maintaining the thousands of inventory items a combat unit like the 366th requires to keep moving. Like any other unit, this covers everything that would be needed by a small town, from food and fuel to soap and toilet paper. One of the big efforts of the folks in this unit is to combine, wherever possible, supply line items, so that the wing has fewer different things to take with it when it deploys.

  366TH TRANSPORTATION SQUADRON. Commanded by Major William K. Bass, the 366th Transportation Squadron is a combination of a truck dispatch office, a passenger and cargo airline, and a warehousing and trucking company. Centered in a small cluster of offices and spaces in a hangar next to the flight line at Mountain Home, the Transportation Squadron is in charge of
getting the wing and all its “stuff” from one place to another in a minimum of time, and with the least demand on AMC’s limited airlift capacity. Heavy airlifters are scarce national assets, and they are spread very thin by the need to respond to multiple crises around the world.

  Major Bass and his staff are constantly developing and refining contingency plans in their small hangar offices. Around the walls of their conference room are thirty small “white” boards, each representing a numbered load of equipment, cargo, and personnel to be loaded aboard a C-141B Starlifter, to support an “A” Package (the smallest force deployed by the Wing) of aircraft, equipment, and personnel. Now, this represents an ideal situation, with the wing deploying to an excellent host facility (like the Saudi bases used during Desert Shield and Desert Storm), with AMC standing by to send three dozen C-141s and some KC-10s to deploy the unit to the crisis area ASAP. In actuality, what will probably arrive, with only an hour or two of notice from AMC at Scott AFB, is a varied mix of heavy airlift aircraft. These may range from C-17s and C-5s, which carry a lot more than a C-141, to chartered civilian 747s and MD-11 freighters, which carry less and are limited to palletized cargo and perhaps small carts and vehicles. Since it is vital that certain loads and personnel arrive in a particular order, the unpredictability of airlift in a crisis sends the normally calm personnel under Major Bass into a frenzy, as they fire up laptop computers and check specifications to recalculate what and who will go onto a particular aircraft. Then they have to call homes and squadrons to order 366th wing personnel on standby to get themselves and their personal gear to the mobility office now! Although their job is to move the wing in a crisis, most of Major Bass’s personnel will never leave Mountain Home AFB. Their lot in life is to push people, planes, and equipment forward to wherever the 366th is sent, but to stay home in the anxiety and emptiness that is a home base during a crisis.