Base Report Burlington Air Guard Station A Vermont Air National Guard pilot talks to Rob Coppinger about Elementaltheir transition from the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon to the forces Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Right: A pilot assigned to the 158th Fighter Wing, Vermont Air National Guard (ANG), takes o on April 8 this year for a routine training mission from the unit’s base in South Burlington. The pilot is flying a Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIs assigned to the 134th Fighter Squadron, maintaining readiness with the aircraft while the national guard responds to the COVID-19 pandemic US Air National Guard/Tech Sgt Ryan Campbell n October 14, 2020, the last the F-35 is the suppression of airspace and ranges can support The official welcome ceremony of the Vermont Air National enemy air defences (SEAD). projected F-35A operational took place a month later, with OGuard (VTANG) 158th On December 3, 2013, the training requirements and offers USAF Gen Joseph Lengyel, chief Fighter Wing’s 20 Lockheed Martin United States Air Force (USAF) joint training opportunities with of the National Guard Bureau, who F-35A Lightning II aircraft arrived announced that Burlington Air [Boeing] F-15C [Eagles] from spoke about how the 158th FW at Burlington International Airport, Guard Station (AGS), the home of Barnes AGS [Massachusetts].” was assigned the F-35. where the unit is based. the VTANG, had been chosen as Burlington is only the second The transition from the wing’s the first AGS base for the F-35. operational F-35 wing in the entire Mission set fourth-generation Lockheed It was selected after an analysis USAF (See box, ‘All change at Col Daniel Finnegan is a VTANG Martin F-16 Block 30 Fighting of multiple locations’ operational the guard bases’). The first two F-35 pilot with the fighter wing’s Falcon started in 2016, but the considerations, installation F-35As assigned to the 158th FW 134th FS and maintenance group change for the 158th is not just a attributes and economic and and its 134th Fighter Squadron commander. He converted to the different aircraft. The mission the environmental factors. (FS) arrived at Burlington AGS on F-35 this summer then went to fighter wing (FW) will undertake During the announcement, September 19, 2019. Those two Luke Air Force Base, Arizona – the is completely different. Instead of the USAF’s deputy assistant F-35s were flown by 134th FS USAF’s main training base for F-35 providing close air support (CAS) secretary for installations, Timothy commander Lt Col Anthony Marek pilots. Earlier, Finnegan had flown with the F-16, the new task with Bridges, said: “Burlington’s and pilot Lt Col Nathan Graber. the squadron’s Block 30 F-16s. 64 // December 2020 #393 www.Key.Aero Elemental forces Above: Vermont ANG 158th Fighter Wing (FW) pilots prepare for a training flight from their South Burlington base. They are flying the 134th Fighter Squadron’s Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs US Air National Guard/Tech Sgt Ryan Campbell www.Key.Aero #393 December 2020 // 65 Base Report Burlington Air Guard Station Above: United States Air Force Lt Gen Scott Rice, director of the Air National Guard (ANG), speaks about the roles the 158th FW will take on with the F-35 Lightning II, during a welcome ceremony on October 19, 2019 – an event staged to celebrate the arrival of the aircraft to the wing based at South Burlington, Vermont. The 158th FW was the first ANG unit to receive the air force’s most recent fifth-generation aircraft, having received two in September last year out of a total of 20 that would arrive over the following months US Air National Guard/Tech Sgt Ryan Campbell A crew chief assigned to the 158th Maintenance Group marshals an F-35 Lightning II for departure to training known as Southern Lightning at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, from the Vermont ANG base, January 23, 2020. More than 100 airmen will fly and maintain F-35 operations at Southern Lightning, using their training and developing their skills US Air National Guard/Julie M Shea 66 // December 2020 #393 www.Key.Aero History of the 158th Fighter Wing The state of Vermont’s Air National Guard (VTANG) was the fifth guard unit in the United States, recognised by the federal government in August of 1947, a month after President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 separating the US Air Force from the Army. At the time, the VTANG squadron was the 134th. The Vermont guard became part of the 101st Fighter Wing in Maine in 1949. Then, in On December 5 last year, crew assigned to the Vermont ANG 158th Maintenance Group marshalled in four F-35 Lightning II the 1960s, the 134th was reorganised with aircraft, three of which were new to the base in South Burlington. These aircraft arrived from Fort Worth, Texas, and were part the 158th Fighter Interceptor Group and of the 20 aircraft assigned to the Vermont unit, with the full complement arriving mid-2020 US Air National Guard/Julie M Shea became known as the 158th Fighter Wing. The unit’s missions included air defence, The F-16 Blocks 25-32 had [F-16] radar would only see so far working together to provide you state security and air-sea rescue over Lake achieved initial operation capability and it would only see so many with a picture”. With the aircraft Champlain, next to Burlington, Vermont. in 1981 (See, ‘History of the 158th things. Then there would be a little producing the picture that the In the beginning, the wing had no o icial Fighter Wing’). In comparison, bit of data link and you'd have to pilot previously had to conjure air base of its own and field exercises were the latest F-16 is the Block 70-72, listen to the radio a lot” plus, the up mentally, “it leaves you performed at Army Camp Johnson, with air which went into production in 2019. pilot would have to build a mental time in your brain to make the training taking place at the local airport in The Kingdom of Bahrain is the picture of the airspace. tactical decisions that need to South Burlington. The VTANG’s exercises first Block 70 customer, along with That mental workload could get a be made at the time [you need and deployments became more frequent Slovakia and Bulgaria. lot worse for a pilot and Finnegan them for SEAD]”. following the terror attacks on the World Finnegan explains: “When we points out that when a situation, That SEAD mission requires up Trade Center on September 11, 2001, when were in the fourth-generation for example an engagement, “gets to 35 pilots for the 20 F-35s, to VTANG F-16s were in the air over New York [F-16] world, we really relied complicated” and the “radios get ensure the deployment demand within hours. For several months, Vermont heavily on SEAD. We needed saturated”, a pilot’s assumptions can be met. It is up to 35 guard pilots worked beside sister units to [other] people to suppress SAM of what is happening around them because guard units are protect New York and surrounding areas in [surface to air missile defence] “starts to fail”. For these reasons, two-thirds part-time and combat area patrols (CAPs), with Vermont systems. Flying the Block 30, from Finnegan sees the fifth-generation one-third full-time personnel. pilots flying for 122 consecutive days with a culture perspective of the wing, fighter as “super-important to the The USAF decided Vermont no break. Thanks to the dedication of its we were a Block 30 F-16 unit, mission” because, as he adds: would be the first guard F-35 members, the base earned the USAF’s which primarily works in [CAS] air “Everything that you had to work base in 2013, making the Outstanding Unit Award. Flying 24/7 CAPs to ground ordinance delivery.” For hard for in the F-16 and you had to announcement in the December. in response to ‘9/11’ until March 2002, the Finnegan, “when you transition get from other sources and were About two years later, personnel Vermont Air National Guard’s role would to SEAD, that's quite a different working multiple systems all at the started going for F-35 related never be the same again. mission set because there's only same time, this [F-35] jet is doing training. Finnegan says: “For Today, under USAF Air Combat Command, so many SEAD units out there. it all for you.” the most part, we've converted the VTANG’s mission encompasses There's not a lot of them”. In Finnegan’s view, while a lot all our pilots over [to the F-35] national defence, global deterrence and air Finnegan has found the F-35 of people talk about the stealth and now we're hiring a couple capability. The VTANG has performed joint to be as much a transformation aspects of the F-35 and what that of new ones.” Personnel were operations with units from the air and army for the pilot as simply a change will do for the pilot’s survivability, sent to F-35 bases: “We were national guard, air force, army and marine of aircraft. He says: “You'd have “there's a lot of [sensor] fusion sending people out for corps both domestically and abroad. It to manually work your radar and that… takes the capabilities of three-year tours.