On the Cover and “Final Photo”: Lt. Col. Diana M. Brown, Commander, 177th Mission Sup- port Group, was promoted to colonel by Brig. Gen. Michael Cunniff during a ceremony at the 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard, Atlantic City Air Guard Base, N.J., Sept. 29, 2016. As the 177th Mission Support Group commander, Brown directs and moni- tors support activities and units including security, civil engineering, communications- computer, morale, welfare, recreation and services; personnel, information management, logistics readiness, contracting, and manpower to support the Wing’s mission. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen/Released) OCTOBER 2016, VOL. 50 NO. 10 THE CONTRAIL STAFF 177TH FW COMMANDER COL. JOHN R. DiDONNA CHIEF, PUBLIC AFFAIRS CAPT. AMANDA A. BATIZ EDITOR/SUPERINTENDENT, PUBLIC AFFAIRS MASTER SGT. ANDREW J. MOSELEY PHOTOJOURNALIST TECH. SGT. ANDREW J. MERLOCK PHOTOJOURNALIST SENIOR AIRMAN SHANE S. KARP AVIATION HISTORIAN DR. RICHARD PORCELLI WWW.177FW.ANG.AF.MIL This funded newspaper is an authorized monthly publication for members of the U.S. Military Services. Contents of The Contrail are not On desktop computers, click For back issues of The Contrail, necessarily the official view of, or endorsed by, the 177th Fighter Wing, the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense or the Depart- Ctrl+L for full screen. On mobile, and other multimedia products ment of the Air Force. The editorial content is edited, prepared, and provided by the Public Affairs Office of the 177th Fighter Wing. All tablet, or touch screen device, from the 177th Fighter Wing, photographs are Air Force photographs unless otherwise indicated. tap or swipe to flip the page. please visit us at DVIDS! Story by Col. Bradford Everman, 177th Fighter Wing Operations Group Commander In reality, fighter jets age is characterized by flight hours. generally on unit facilities, training airspace Fun facts: Some As it turns out, the average age of the 177FW fleet is and community interaction. average life expec- 6623 hours. While active duty Block 40/50 aircraft are So, there is a chance! As the project officer, I tancies – being strengthened to fly 12,000 hours, the 177FW F-16 collated the data and can tell you the 177FW Block 30 will not be certified beyond 8000 effective flight Bowhead Whale: stacks up very well. The wing is in a very com- hours. At our current fly rate, some quick math shows petitive position. To be fair, several other 200 years. these jets have about 10 years of remaining life. units compete equally well, and at least two Galapagos Turtle: What does that mean for the mission of the 177FW? It units might be ideally positioned. means it’s time to get serious about our next mission. 190 years. What next? After analyzing the data, the ANG As most are aware, the F-16 squadron in Vermont is the and the USAF will narrow the pool from 20+ American citizen: first ANG unit transitioning to the new F-35 Lightning units to approximately 5 units, with an ex- 79 years. (Joint Strike Fighter) in 2020. What is not obvious is that pected release in Spring 2017. Each of the 5 Vermont is the third operational (Ops) unit. Here’s how units will participate in a much more in-depth F-16: 40 years. it breaks down: study to truly analyze feasibility, known as an Ops 1 – Hill AFB Environmental Impact Survey (EIS), lasting about one year. From this pool, the ANG and When you look at the F-16s on the AC ramp, the first two Ops 2 – Eielson AFB the USAF will select Ops 5 and Ops 6, with digits on the tail number are 86 or 87. This signifies the year transition timeline of 2021 and 2022. of manufacture as 1986 or 1987 – these F-16s are 30 years Ops 3 – ANG old! (Burlington, VT) What if we don’t make it? If the 177FW is not selected for transition to the F-35, you can ex- Ops 4 – USAF Reserve Unit pect a mission update in the mid-2020s. The mission update could involve longer lifespan F Ops 5 – ANG (TBD) -16 Block 40/50 flowed from the USAF, heavy Ops 6 – ANG (TBD) aircraft, unmanned aircraft, or even a non- Ops 7 – USAF (TBD) flying mission. Ops 8 – ANG (TBD) How can I help? Easy! Continue to focus on professionalism and mission accomplishment. Roughly two months ago, the 177FW participated in a When making strategic basing decisions, the data call. The ANG and the USAF are working through USAF corporate process looks at EVERYTHING. the next three units to transition from the F-16 to the F- This includes items beyond facilities, like man- 35. The data call involved all ANG units flying F-16, F-15 ning rates and inspection performance. Just or A-10 aircraft and was designed to capture all relevant like the USAF Core Value says – Excellence In facts pertaining to the most effective and cost efficient All You Do! way to bed down new airplanes. The process focused EXPEDITIONARY SKILLS RODEO Photos and story by Senior Airman Shane Karp ATLANTIC CITY AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.J.- Airmen from the 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard, are taking part in an expeditionary skills rodeo, here, dur- ing the September and October unit training assemblies. Airmen will conduct self-aid and buddy care training, as well as chemical, biological, radi- ological and nuclear, or CBRN, training, in order to ensure readiness for future deploy- ments. Self-aid buddy care, better known as SABC, teaches Airmen basic life support and limb- saving techniques to help wounded personnel survive in medical emergencies until med- ical help is available. CBRN training includes practicing the proper wear of mission oriented protective pos- ture, MOPP, gear, as well as training to identify and safely cordon unexploded ord- nances. “It’s so beneficial for us to be able to do this type of training,” said Senior Airman Lizette A. Ordonez, from the 177th Logistics Readiness Squadron. “It’s something that will help us in case of an emergency out in the field, and could save lives at home also.” (Left and Right) Senior Master Sgt. Richard Buhl, emergency management superintendent with the 177th Fighter Wing, gives a lesson on unexploded explosive ordnance during the expeditionary skills rodeo. (Top) Airmen from the 177th Fighter Wing complete buddy checks to en- sure there is a proper seal on their gas masks during an expeditionary skills rodeo. The training included familiarizing Airmen with MOPP gear, as well as detecting unexploded explosive ordnance. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Shane Karp) Story by Dr. Richard V. Porcelli The F-16 Fighting Falcon Part 4 – Block 15 Jets B ackground As related in the earlier parts of the F-16 story, the original design as demonstrated in the YF-16 prototypes was optimized for per- formance and winning the Advanced Concept Fighter competi- tion. As the F-16 has evolved in the years since then capabilities have been added with relatively minor changes in the airframe. This evolution, however, is a continuous balancing act between the addition of new capabilities and improvements to the existing ones, while maintaining the original design concept that optimiz- es performance. These improvements and enhancements can cover many differ- ent functions. They include countermeasures; infrared sensors; laser targeting and navigation pods; missionized rear cockpits on the two-seaters; data links and satellite communications; helmet mounted cueing systems; all-glass cockpits with large, color dis- plays; and more recently, conformal fuel tanks and automated loss-of-control recovery systems. Amazingly, all of these added capabilities have been somehow “shoehorned” into the same basic airframe, maintaining its high, sustained g performance and still out-flying other four-generation fighters. This has been achievable thanks to the electronic revolution and the ability of miniaturization to add more systems into an airframe that was purposely designed to be “as dense as possible” to prevent addi- tional systems and their attendant weight from diluting the jets performance! But we are getting a little ahead of the- F 16 story. In the last Contrail, we described the Block designating system and the ini- tial production of ninety-four Block 1 and 197 Block 5 F-16s that were built through 1981 by General Dynamics and its licensees Two F-16A Block 15’s of the 313 TFS, Hahn AB, are shown flying over Germany in for the USAF and four European air forces. 1983; 80-0542 was second Block 15 Viper produced. (F16.net) In 1982 most of these aircraft were upgraded to The first Block 15 aircraft, 80-0541, was rolled out The main benefit of this change was the ability to F-16 particularly in the air-to-ground role and for what today we call “plug and play” functionality. the Block 10 standard, joining an additional 312 of the Fort Worth factory in 1982. Coincidentally, take off at a reduced rotation angle and in flight, beyond-visual-range [BVR] air combat scenarios. The AN/APG-66 radar was upgraded with the ad- new-build Block 10 aircraft. All of these early as will be related below, this noteworthy aircraft allowed higher angles of attack. The larger tail also The first step to achieve this was the strengthen- dition of a track-while-scan mode that resulted in blocks were very similar, including the reliance eventually flew with the 119th Fighter Squadron, offset the shift in the center of gravity caused by the ing of the airframe to enable greater load carrying enhanced air-defense effectiveness.