Page 1 - Edwards AFB Desert Wings 1-15-16

Volume 63, Number 27 Serving the community of Edwards Air Force Base, California January 15, 2016

www.edwards.af.mil – www.facebook.com/edwardsairforcebase

Test team aims at new machine gun for Pave Hawk

by Rebecca Amber
Staff writer

Arriving in the rain, an Air Force HH-60G Air Force photograph by Christopher Okula
Pave Hawk helicopter landed at Edwards
Jan. 5 to begin testing the ballistic disper- A Pave Hawk is a variant of the UH-60 Blackhawk used by the U.S. Army. Its primary objective is combat search and rescue. The combat
sion of a GAU-21 .50 caliber machine gun. crew of four includes the pilot, copilot and two special mission aviators as well as three Air Force pararescue men for rescue operations.

The Pave Hawk will be at Edwards until
Jan. 22 where the 412th Test Wing and 418th
Flight Test Squadron are providing the facili-
ties, range safety, photographic documenta-
tion and maintenance support equipment.

The 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force
Base, Fla., and the 412th Test Wing, part-
nered up to provide the 413th Flight Test
Squadron, Detachment 1 from Nellis Air
Force Base, Nev., a location for their test
team to accomplish baseline ballistics test-
ing. That location is Edwards AFB’s Gun
Harmonizing Range.

The testing is part of the Air Combat Com-
mand’s “HH-60 Defensive Weapons System
Upgrade´ modi¿cation proposal.

The modification proposal requires the
new weapon to be an open bolt system, have
a longer barrel life, a higher cyclic rate of
¿re, be lighter weight and have reduced re-
coil. The selected weapon must also be used
currently by other Department of Defense
services.

According to James Cooley, 413th Flight
Test Squadron Det. 1 technical director,
the closed-bolt GAU-18 defensive system,
which has been used on the HH-60, has dem-
onstrated a short barrel life (3,000 rounds),
relatively low cyclic rate of ¿re (550 rounds
per minute), high recoil and is vulnerability
to unsafe ammunition “cook-offs.”

See PAVE HAWK, Page 3

First combat Raptor, Maloney’s Pony, rides into Edwards

by Rebecca Amber It was August of 1944 and Maloney was Àying a P-38 Light-
Staff writer ning that he named “Maloney’s Pony” in France with others
in his squadron. They were on their way back from a strike
The 411th Flight Test Squadron got a ¿rst-hand look at a mission when they noticed a poorly-defended German train
legend in June and November of 2015 when F-22 tail number and decided to take advantage of the opportunity.
09-0174 “Maloney’s Pony” landed at Edwards.
After several runs, Maloney hit a Àatbed car that was loaded
The F-22 visited Edwards from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, with military supplies including ammunition causing an ex-
Va., as part of the Signature Management Program, which is plosion. The shrapnel that hit his aircraft caused engine dam-
to maintain its stealth characteristics. age and he crash-landed in the Mediterranean Sea. When the
rescue efforts did not recover him, Maloney was presumed
The story that accompanies the jet dates back to World dead or captured.
War ,, and reÀects the heroism of one pilot, Maj. Thomas
E. Maloney, who Àew with the 27th Fighter Squadron more But he was very much alive.
than 60 years ago. He Àoated to shore in the middle of the night and knew

Maj. David Schmitt, 411th Flight Test Squadron assistant See RAPTOR, Page 5
director of operations, remembers the story of Maloney’s
Pony well. From 2010 to 2014 he was assigned to the 27th Air Force photograph by Airman 1st Class Teresa Cleveland
Fighter Squadron, one of the oldest squadrons in the Air
Force. The Maloney’s Pony artwork is displayed on the body of an
F-22 Raptor from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. The artwork
“Tom Maloney was their leading ace of World War II so was painted on the Raptor in honor of Maj. Thomas E. Maloney,
his story is something every wingman learns in the 27th,” the 27th Fighter Squadron’s highest scoring Ace of World War
recalled Schmitt. “If you were the leading ace, that really II.The F-22 visited Edwards as part of the Signature Management
meant something — that you were really held in high esteem Program, which is to maintain its stealth characteristics.
by everybody.”