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The Air Force Needs Every Fighter It Can Spare for Real World Missions. Are Private Aggressors the Wave of the Future?

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The Air Force Needs Every Fighter It Can Spare for Real World Missions. Are Private Aggressors the Wave of the Future? RED AIR FOR HIRE THE AIR FORCE NEEDS EVERY FIGHTER IT CAN SPARE FOR REALWORLD MISSIONS. ARE PRIVATE AGGRESSORS THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE? By Amy McCullough, News Editor temporarily ll the gap left by the loss the Arizona Air National Guard’s 162nd of the 65th’s F-15s, but this wasn’t a Fighter Wing, which also participated udget cuts in recent sustainable long-term approach: e in the exercise. years have compelled ghters were needed for real-world After Northern Lightning, the Air the Air Force to shrink missions elsewhere. Force began to think industry might be its aggressor air ca- In June 2015, USAF tried something able to help it solve its Red Air problem. pability, the in-house new. Four Air National Guard F-16 units Air Combat Command asked Draken to adversaries who serve squared o against Douglas A-4K Sky- provide similar training for the USAF Bas aerial sparring partners for front- hawk “aggressors for hire” and realistic Weapons School at Nellis. line aircrews. After the 65th Aggressor surface-to-air threats during the large- “It was only supposed to be a couple Squadron (AGRS)—which ew F-15s— force employment exercise Northern of weeks, but we never left,” said John shut down in 2014, only the 64th AGRS Lightning at Volk Field, Wis. Baum, Draken’s vice president of stra- at Nellis AFB, Nev., and the 18th AGRS e Skyhawks, provided by Draken tegic projects and security. at Eielson AFB, Alaska—each ying International, provided “top-notch” By September 2015, Draken was of- F-16s—were left. training and were “ve times” cheaper cially awarded a contract to provide Within months, the service was forced to y than organic assets, said Lt. Col. adversary support to augment the Air to pull aircraft from operational units to Richard Wigle, a pilot at the time with Force’s existing F-16 eet at Nellis. eir APRIL / MAY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Aggressor F-15s and an F-16 head to the fight during Red Flag 07-3 at Nellis AFB, Nev., in August 2007. The 65th Aggressor Squadron was shut down in 2014, leaving only the 64th and 18th AGRS to perform aggressor missions. They are supplemented with civilian contractor aircraft. RED AIR FOR HIRE contract was recently extended another A pilot carries a flight year. bag with a distinctive In the period since the original con- aggressor patch during tract award, Draken has virtually taken Red Flag 17-4. over the role of the now-inactivated 65th AGRS, said Baum. “Our role is to augment the 64th [AGRS] in capability and capacity to support primarily the Weapons School [and] Red Flag,” he said, though the company also supports the 422nd Training and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis. It has also supported Air Educa- tion and Training Command by mock dogghting with F-35s from Luke AFB, Ariz., in the airspace between the two bases. Photos: MSgt. Kevin Kevin SrA. Gruenwald; Tanenbaum APRIL / MAY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Top Aces’ Dornier Alpha aircraft have been modified to meet the aggressor role. “We’re essentially like … having two squadrons on base,” Baum said. “We operate like any other ghter squadron, … we have hangar space and operate out of the 64th Aggressor Squadron as a combined unit.” Even with Draken’s support, USAF still can’t meet all of its requirements for adversary air, said Lt. Col. Zach Manning, 64th AGRS commander. “During Red Flag, oftentimes blue units will augment us and will y on the red side for some missions. at’s less than ideal, and there is still a need for additional capacity,” said Manning, who arrived at Nellis shortly after the 65th shut down. “We haven’t slowed down at all because Draken is here.” e average 64th aggressor pilot ies Capt. David Hickle, an 18th Aggressor Squadron pilot, reviews an F-16 two to three times a week. “e schedule maintenance log at Eielson AFB, Alaska. can be fairly harrowing on personnel. In general we’ll have a day mission ward with plans to contract out up e contract—known as Nellis ADAIR and then have a night mission,” said to an additional 5,600 ying hours of II—will be worth a maximum of $280 Manning. realistic advanced adversary air at Nel- million for one base year, with four For night missions, pilots may show lis. Industry leaders said the service is option years, according to documents up to work at 4 p.m. but won’t nish leaning toward a single provider, though posted on a federal website. It is part debrieng until 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. “Some it is open to multiple contract awards. of the service’s overall eort to free up of the challenges I see as a commander Ideally, Nellis would have the winning aircraft and blue-suiters for operational involve making sure I give my people provider or providers ying on Oct. 1, missions while meeting the growing appropriate time o,” he noted. so there is no gap in capability from demand for Red Air. when Draken’s current contract ends In 2019, the service plans to award AN INSATIABLE DEMAND on Sept. 30 and when the follow-on multiple contracts—known as the CAF So now the Air Force is moving for- contract begins. ADAIR—totaling nearly 37,000 hours APRIL / MAY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Draken was originally awarded a contract to provide adversary support in 2015; the contract expires Sept. 30, 2018. of Red Air at 11 bases, including Sey- mour Johnson AFB, N.C.; JB Pearl Har- bor-Hickam, Hawaii; Holloman AFB, N.M.; Eglin AFB, Fla.; JB Langley-Eustis, Va.; Tyndall AFB, Fla.; Kingsley Field, Ore.; Luke AFB, Ariz.; Hill AFB, Utah; and Tucson Arpt., Ariz., according to industry ocials briefed on the plan. Over the past few years, industry has been aggressively building up its eets of potential adversary aircraft in antic- ipation of the contract. Once fully im- plemented, USAF will have the world’s largest contracted adversary air force. In December, Draken announced it had bought 12 South African Atlas-made Cheetah supersonic ghters (converted ex-French Mirage IIIs), bringing its to- F-16 maintainers replace the landing gear on an Aggressor F-16 at Nellis in 2015. tal eet to 110 jets. e rest of its eet comprised nine Aermacchi MB-339s, 27 the Air National Guard had contracted it time, but physically the airplanes are MiG-21s, 21 Aero Vodochody L-159s, 22 to provide adversary air support at Volk less complex. … We have third genera- Dassault Mirage F1s, 13 A-4s, ve Aero Field, Wis.; Alpena, Mich.; Gulfport, La.; tion airplane reliability but all our jets L-39s, and one Lockheed T-33. Savannah, Ga.; Klamath Falls, Ore.; and have been upgraded from an avionics e Cheetahs—nine C-model sin- Oahu, Hawaii, in addition to the roughly standpoint to where they have fourth gle-seat and three D-model two-seat- 4,300 annual hours it currently ies at gen capability.” ers—can y at speeds exceeding Mach Nellis. Textron Airborne Solutions an- 2 and have an average of 500 hours on If Draken provided “this bit of Red Air, nounced in September it had acquired each airframe, making them consider- I did the math, you could generate three 63 Dassault Mirage F1 aircraft previ- ably younger than many of the USAF, more full classes and create another 30 ously owned by the French air force, Marine Corps, or Navy aircraft they F-16 pilots a year,” Baum said. “You can making it the “world’s largest private could potentially challenge in a Red get ve Draken sorties for the cost of supersonic air force,” said Jerey Parker, Air capacity. one USAF F-16 sortie. It’s because we chief executive ocer of the Airborne A month earlier, Draken announced have airplanes that have been tried over Tactical Advantage Company. Textron SSgt. Aces; Siuta Intl.; Ika SSgt. Draken Jerilyn Quintanilla; Photos: Top APRIL / MAY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM A Jordanian F-5E is unloaded from a transport. TacAir has purchased more than 20 such Jordanian aircraft, intending to support US Navy and USAF adversary contracts. bought ATAC last year in anticipation tition, company ocials say they’re not “ey are essentially our airplanes. We of a rapidly growing contracted Red going after quantity but quality. TacAir have money down on them, and we can Air market. is hoping to capitalize on its experi- bring them into the country as soon as ATAC has own nearly 50,000 hours enced cadre of pilots and maintainers— we get a contract.” of contracted adversary air since the as well as its ghter ethos. e company Philman said the aircraft are being 1990s—mostly for the US Navy—and employs 52 weapons school graduates maintained and though they are not is hoping that experience and its most and 17 former weapons school instruc- currently ying, they are “functional” recent procurement will give it an ad- tors, including some with more than and are considered in “yaway condi- vantage in USAF’s competition. 2,000 hours in the F-5. e fact that the tion.” He said he could not release the “Industry is going to be working really F-5 is a US-built aircraft still own by the name of the country where the aircraft hard to address the full requirement for US Navy and Marine Corps is a bonus, currently reside, but noted that all have the Air Force,” Parker said in an inter- ocials say. either undergone the Falcon Star up- view last fall.
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