55th takes flight at Combat Archer

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- The 55th Fighter Squadron returned home Jul 1 from a two-week air-to-air combat evaluation called Combat Archer at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.
The 83rd Fighter Weapons Squadron from the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group evaluated our aircraft weapons systems, software, pilots, maintainers, loaders and ammo personnel, said Lt. Col. David Hathaway, 55th FS commander.

The loaders are inspected to make sure they load the missiles and guns correctly, he said. Pilots are tested on their readiness to deploy and their ability to get the aircraft airborne on time and in the right parameters.

“About 145 55th FS personnel took part in the evaluation,” said Capt. Jonathan Richards, 55th FS scheduler. “Twenty-nine of them were pilots, four were operations support personnel and the rest were maintainers, loaders and ammo.

“The pilots would go up and practice shooting missiles at drones,” he said. “We shot at QF-4 full scale drones and BQM-34 Firebee sub-scale drones. The difference between them is the QF-4 is an F-4 modified to be completely remote control. It takes off and lands from a runway like any other traditional aircraft if it isn’t shot down first. On the other hand, the Firebee is launched from a rail by rocket propulsion then flies via remote control on an internal engine. When it is either shot down or runs out of fuel, the Firebee descends into the ocean on a parachute where it is retrieved.”

“The drones have pods on the wingtips that generate heat,” Col. Hathaway said. “This heat is the target for our infrared missiles. We can shoot at it without the pods making our missiles target the engine heat, which would give us a direct hit and knock it out of the sky. The pilots would try to hit the pods in order to keep the drone alive for more target practice.

“During Combat Archer, if the pilot’s shot was close, it was considered a hit because in real live scenarios where the missiles have warheads in them, they would fuse and explode once they got close to the target,” he said. “During the evaluation the missiles had the warheads removed and replaced with telemetry equipment, but even without the warhead, if the missile had a direct hit, it would still knock the drone out of the sky.”

During the evaluation, pilots also took part in Combat Banner, Col. Hathaway said. This is where a 40-foot banner with a painted bulls-eye is towed behind a small business jet allowing pilots to practice their air-to-air gunnery.

“In Combat Banner, 12 jets participated and 6,000 rounds were used,” Capt. Richards said.

In addition to the evaluation, the 55th FS also flew almost 300 sorties, he said. Out of that, 200 sorties were dissimilar air-combat training against F-15C’s from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.

The 55th FS pilots shot a total of nine missiles -- eight of them were AIM-9 sidewinder short-range missiles and one was an AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile, Col. Hathaway said.

“The evaluation was a complete success,” he said. “Out of the 9 missiles, all struck their targets. The maintainers did an exceptional job as well. They had a delivery rate of over 99 percent with minimum manning. Plus, we had zero gun malfunctions during Combat Banner.

“In my 18 years of service, I have been to about eight Combat Archers and this one was the best training deployment I have ever been on,” Col. Hathaway said.