115th Fighter Wing ‘Badger Air Militia’ The sound of the F-16 is well known to the residents of Madison, Wisconsin in the American Midwest – the 115th Fighter Wing calls this city home. Ivan Voukadinov travels to Dane County Regional Airport/Truax Field to visit the Air National Guard’s ‘Badger Air Militia’. n recent years the 115th Fighter Wing keeping these 30-year-old F-16s in tip- which is one of our unique (FW) has enjoyed significant attention, top condition. The 115th Mission Support missions that started after ‘9/11’. I selected as a future F-35A operator Group (MSG) performs all other functions We have F-16s on alert 24 hours a day while currently still playing an important role from civil engineering to base security, – not all fighter squadrons do that. as one of a dozen Air National Guard (ANG) with the resident medical group ensuring “Generally, we are responsible for the units that still fly the F-16C/D Fighting Falcon. the team remains up to the job in hand. Midwest; maybe an airliner that is not talking At Truax Field, the 176th Fighter Squadron The F-16 squadron is mandated for to ATC [air traffic control], or that reports (FS) ‘Badger Air Militia’ flies the oldest of 18 jets, but currently enjoys a Primary a disturbance on board. Or if there the USAF’s ‘Vipers’ – the Block 30, which is Assigned Aircraft (PAA) fleet of 24. Col Erik is any airplane flying that powered by the General Electric F110 engine. Peterson is the current commander of the is suspicious or hasn’t As part of the Wisconsin ANG, the 115th 176th FS, and he told AFM: “As a National identified itself to ATC FW is subordinated to the governor of Guard unit, the official mission is to deliver and there is a reason Wisconsin in Madison. The structure of the dominant combat air power and provide to believe it’s a stolen wing can be split up into four main agile support for domestic operations.” aircraft – then we would elements: the 115th Operations This can be broken down into some scramble aircraft. Group (OG), which ‘owns’ the fundamental components, as Lt Generally, this flying mission and is responsible Col Charles Merkel, a veteran doesn’t happen for everything related to this pilot with the unit added. “On very often, including the scheduling of the air power side, we fulfill maybe a couple flights and training. The 115th missions overseas alongside of times Maintenance Group (MXG) our active-duty squadrons. per year.” is packed with experienced We also look after hands who are experts in homeland defence, Right: A pair of ‘Badger Air Militia’ F-16Cs breaks for the camera. The jets are confi gured for air- to-air training, with wingtip AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles as well as single AIM-9X (lead aircraft) or AIM-9L/M Sidewinders, twin underwing tanks and air combat manoeuvring instrumentation (ACMI) pods. All photos Ivan Voukadinov 48 // November 2019 #380 48-52 115FW AFM Nov2019.indd 48 04/10/2019 14:28:07 115th Fighter Wing history The 115th Fighter Wing (FW) traces its lineage from the 128th FW, which was established in 1950. Even further back, the 176th Fighter Squadron (FS) has its roots in the 306th FS. The history of the 115th FW therefore truly begins on July 16, 1942 when the 306th FS was constituted and then activated on July 22, 1942. Following a redesignation as the 176th it received federal recognition on October 6, 1948 which the unit considers its anniversary date. Over the years, the unit has flown a wide variety of missions and aircraft types, which include the F-51 Mustang, F-89 Scorpion, F-86A Sabre, F-102 Delta Dagger, O-2A Bird Dog, OA-37 Dragonfly, and the A-10 Thunderbolt II. In 1992 the F-16 replaced the A-10 and this remains in service with the unit a quarter of a century later. #380 November 2019 // 49 www.Key.Aero 04/10/2019 14:28:21 48-52 115FW AFM Nov2019.indd 49 115th Fighter Wing Mission objectives Recent years have seen the 176th FS focused heavily on the close air support (CAS) role, largely due to the high demand for this kind of mission in overseas combat operations. It’s important for a unit such as this, flying a true multi-role fighter, not to get too heavily weighted towards a single mission and to stay on top of the full remit of the ‘Viper’. Lt Col Merkel said: “Our whole training syllabus usually takes about eight months to go through. We start with individual BFM (basic fighter manoeuvres) then move to Above: The ‘Badger Air Militia’ patrols the snowy expanses of the Midwest. Following the terror attacks 2-v-2, 4-v-X and all the different air-to-air of September 11, 2001, the unit’s F-16s have taken on the homeland defence role, for which it keeps elements [involved in flying the F-16]. F-16s on round-the-clock alert. Below: The view from the back seat of an F-16D ‘twin-sticker’ as the pilot approaches the boom of a 126th ARW Stratotanker. The Wisconsin ANG F-16s make regular use of refuelling “Then we go into basic surface attacks [BSA], assets from both the 128th ARW in Milwaukee and the 126th ARW at Scott AFB, Illinois. CAS, interdiction, and opposed interdiction [with an enemy force]. Although the training is split about 50:50 between air-to-air and air-to- ground missions, lately we’ve been specialising in CAS for our overseas missions. We keep repeating the syllabus but we also [tailor] it so that our focus is on our upcoming deployment.” Admittedly, the 176th FS syllabus doesn’t cover every possible mission of the F-16. One example is suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD), which is a mission set the ‘Badger Air Militia’ is not equipped for, being as it flies the older Block 30 jets, which lack the ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System (HTS). In addition to the main F-16 flying component, the unit also flies a single Fairchild RC-26B Metroliner. This is a rather unusual aircraft for an ANG fighter wing. Equipped with various sensors including a forward-looking infrared (FLIR), it is used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) flights. Most often, this includes counter-drug operations and border patrol, with the aircraft deploying to various hotspots with known activity. 50 // November 2019 #380 www.Key.Aero 48-52 115FW AFM Nov2019.indd 50 04/10/2019 14:28:54 “Although the training is split about 50:50 between air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, lately we’ve been specialising in CAS for our overseas missions.” Lt Col Charles Merkel Right: Popping a fl are during an air combat training sortie. For ‘Badger Air Militia’ pilots, this discipline begins with BFM before progressing to 2-v-2 and 4-v-X engagements. Inset: Lt Col Charles Merkel is one of the 176th’s longer- serving F-16 pilots. As head of the F-35 unit conversion offi ce at Truax, he’s looking forward to the squadron getting its hands on fi fth- generation equipment in future. Below: Tail number 87-0345 takes its turn on the boom of KC-135R 62-3515. The Stratotanker is assigned to the 108th Air Refueling Squadron. Local team, FS will undertake a major international combat deployment of responsibilities three months or more. The location of Truax Field In the past 15 years, this has offers excellent opportunities to included five stints in support practise F-16 warfighting, because of Operation Enduring Freedom of its close proximity to a large training and Iraqi Freedom. The latest, which airspace complex located in central Wisconsin. started in July 2019, is to Afghanistan in This includes the Hardwood Range, which support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel provides realistic and challenging training and NATO’s Resolute Support. Other major scenarios. It offers a full spectrum of target overseas trips for the squadron in recent sets that support live laser and GPS-guided years have included to Kunsan in South Korea munitions, moving strafe, and synthetic in 2017 and to Kadena, Japan, in 2015. aperture radar (SAR) targets. Everything is The unit also has a special connection in close enough that it only takes a few minutes Europe, as Lt Col Merkel explained. “We for aircraft to fly to the necessary area. have a relationship with Poland through the The close proximity of the 128th Air Refueling state partnership programme with three trips Wing (ARW) of the Wisconsin ANG at to Poland in the past decade. Our official Milwaukee and the 126th ARW of the Illinois state partner is actually Nicaragua and ANG means that the 115th FW is rarely short Poland is supposed to be with Illinois but of KC-135R in-flight refuelling support. As well they [Illinois] don’t have fighters anymore, so as unit-level activities, small-scale joint flying we’ve adopted Poland as our partners. We’ve with the relatively close 148th FW from Duluth, flown with both their MiG-29s and F-16s, Minnesota, provides useful sharing of resources. but it’s more about building relationships.” The close proximity of the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) is also a Maintaining the Guard huge bonus and the 115th FW has become Around 1,500 people serve with the 115th host to the annual Northern Lightning exercise, FW, of which 500 are full-time and about which focuses on integration between 1,000 are part-time or traditional guardsmen.