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6 June, 2016 NEWS Thunderbolt
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f-35 (from Page 1) when they’re up in the air experiencing
what this capability brings.”
and more capable as we go on. We were able Courtesy photo
to contribute to the ght over the past two The first B-Course F-35 student was
weeks and allow, not only the students, but F-16s Fighting Falcons and F-35 Lightning IIs from the 56th Fighter Wing fly side by announced in March and soon the F-35
also instructors to see what this platform is side during a large-force exercise April 18 through 29 at Luke Air Force Base. The program will be expanding its training
currently capable of right here, right now.” LFE is the culmination of eight months of training integrating various platforms from syllabus.
different bases using air-to-air and air-to-surface tactics.
This exercise also allowed students to “We’ve made leaps and bounds since
see rst-hand how the F-35 makes solving care of ourselves, but that we had them but when you put all the different com- the beginning of the year,” said Capt. Ian
these dynamic challenges easier. watching our backs.” munities into a mission planning room it Osterreicher, 61st FS chief of scheduling.
forces you to take a step back and admit “We’re going to see our syllabus ramp up
“The F-35 compliments us with a whole The LFE provided students a realistic your limitations and say where and why and we’ll be starting to do our own LFEs
new capability,” Kouwe said. “It adds so training environment that not only showed we need the other platforms.” and next time, we’ll be asking the F-16s to
much situational awareness and the low them what their wingmen in other plat- support us.”
observability is extremely good.” forms are capable of but also how to com- The LFE furthered the student’s de-
municate and quickly problem solve when velopment and completed their B-Course Even with all the milestones and ad-
One of the F-35 pilots involved in the things don’t go according to plan. training, but it also presented another vancements this is just the start of things
exercise spent the rst part of his career milestone for the F-35 program at Luke. to come at Luke and the F-35 program.
mastering the F-16. He now gets to y next “Putting all these moving pieces to-
to his old jet and share the capabilties of gether is something you can talk about “It’s a big deal for us,” Jelinek said. “Ev- “We have only a squadron and a half
his new ghter. all day but until you go and do it and see ery time we get to go integrate and show training ghter pilots,” Jelinek said. “Even-
what can go wrong and then follow up with off our capabilities, both air-to-air and air- tually, we’re going to have 144 F-35s. If you
“We’re able to know what’s going on a solution, there’s no other way to simulate to-ground, it really opens eyes. Everyone look out on the ramp and multiply what we
and then pass that information to the it but to actually practice it,” Kouwe said. sees it on the ramp and they might think it have right now by four, that’s the capabil-
F-16s. We provide a bigger picture, more “All pilots think their platform is the best looks pretty cool but it’s a whole new story ity we’re going to have to train tomorrow’s
situational awareness, while also utilizing
unprecedented stealth capabilities,” said ghters.”
Maj. Joseph Walker, 62nd FS B-Flight com- This fall, Hill AFB, Utah, is going to
mander “We’re able to go places and take declare initial operating capability. The
out threats the F-16 traditionally can’t or extensive training here at Luke, to include
faces a higher risk of failure. We’re here to integration exercises like LFEs, allows Hill
use the F-35’s strengths while enhancing to be ready for this next step.
the F-16’s strengths by working together.” “We y more sorties in the 61st FS than
any other Air Force fighter squadron,”
Some of the F-16 students had a chance Jelinek said. “With the number of hours we
to learn what it’s like to execute an LFE put on these jets, the number of sorties we
with and without the F-35. turn per week, we’re able to pass valuable
lessons learned to these other bases. We’re
“I ew one day with the F-35s and one able to pass any ndings we have on how
day without them and it really showed the F-35 performs to operational testers, de-
me the bene ts of having them with us,” velopmental testers and, most importantly,
Kouwe said. “It gave me con dence know- back to Hill to get them ready for IOC.”
ing that it wasn’t just up to us to take
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