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Airmen maintain F-16’s invisibility cloak

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christopher Maldonado
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Ensuring the survivability of aircraft and aircrew is one of the factors that determine mission success for the Air Force; having the capability to cloak an aircraft from potential threats is an invaluable asset.

A group of Airmen assigned to the 20th Component Maintenance Squadron electronic warfare flight maintain the machinery needed to make this technology a reality.

The AN/ALQ-184 electronic countermeasure pod is a device that is attached to the bottom of various aircraft to include, F-16CM Fighting Falcons, A/OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs and F-4 Phantoms, providing protection against enemy surface-to-air radars. The pod protects the aircraft by receiving signals and delivering false information to the surface-to-air threats tracking the aircraft.

“The pods allow jets to jam missile systems in hostile territories,” said Staff Sgt. Ryan Benedict, 20th CMS electronic warfare team lead. “The importance is that our jets don’t get shot down.”

The electronic warfare technicians who manage this equipment work in 24-hour shifts to calibrate frequencies, perform maintenance and catch errors in pod infrastructure due to extensive application onto aircraft.

“Normal days we do turnovers and check on the current statuses of all pods; troubleshooting errors as they are spotted,” said Airman 1st Class Austin Garrigus, 20th CMS electronic warfare team member. “We are extremely busy in this shop. The tempo is always go, go, go.”

With a drive to work until pods are functional, 20th CMS electronic warfare Airmen support the mission of the F-16s assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing as well as the A/OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs assigned to the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB, Georgia; maintaining and upgrading 141 ECM pods for both installations.

“It feels good to see how the work of electronic warfare Airmen helps send out pods into combat zones to win our nation’s battles,” said Benedict.

With the ongoing support from the 20th CMS electronic warfare flight, the aircraft assigned to Shaw have the capabilities to disappear from detection and accomplish the mission, returning home safely upon mission success.