Hello from your Navy Air Warfare team in the Pentagon. In this issue, I’d like to discuss one of our vital training assets — an asset all of our air wings train against before they deploy. I am talking about adversary.
Almost everyone knows the background concerning the development of our adversary forces. After experiencing an unusually unfavorable kill ratio in air-to-air engagements during the Vietnam War, the CNO tasked CAPT Frank Ault to find out why. The result was the famous Ault Report, which led to the creation of Topgun.
In 1995 Topgun was moved from NAS Miramar to become a part of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) at NAS Fallon. Unfortunately, 1995 was also the year we were forced to disestablish VF-43, VF-45, VF-126 and VFA-127, our active-duty adversary squadrons. That year also marked the end of our use of the F-16N Fighting Falcon as an adversary aircraft.
VFC-12 and VFC-13, part of the Reserve force, continued to provide adversary support to the Navy while VMFT-401 provided the same functions for the Marines at MCAS Yuma. At the same time, NSAWC was assigned a force of F/A-18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats to provide a mix of adversary support and Blue air (friendly) training for NSAWC personnel. That force continues today with adversary units at NASs Fallon, Oceana, Key West and MCAS Yuma.
Filling a Critical Need
The Navy in 2000 was allocated 14 F-16s (ten A models and four B models) that had originally been earmarked for Pakistan but never delivered. The aircraft are now assigned to NSAWC and have replaced the F-14s formerly assigned. The NSAWC F-16s provide our finest dissimilar Category IV threat presentations in support of Strike Fighter Advanced Readiness Program (SFARP), air-wing training at Fallon and Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor (SFTI) training evolutions.
As with all NSAWC aircraft, the F-16s are maintained by Boeing and have achieved a 98.3 percent sortie completion rate. Through a program of dedicated fatigue life conservation and by limiting their exposure only to the SFTI, SFARP and air-wing Fallon training, we plan to keep the F-16s in service until at least 2015. Fleet replacement squadron students will not be exposed to the NSAWC F-16s, but will get to cut their teeth on the F-5s flown by VFC-13 at Fallon and Key West, as well as VMFT-401 at MCAS Yuma.
The bread and butter of our adversary force remains the F-5. It was discovered in 2001 that our current F-5 force was running out of service life far sooner than anticipated. We needed a replacement … fast!
Swiss F-5s to the Rescue
To meet the need, in 2002 we entered into an agreement with the Swiss government to buy back 32 of the 80 F-5s we had sold them in the 1980s. The Swiss F-5s, while more than 20 years old, had only 1,800 flight hours on them as opposed to the more than 7,000 on ours. Moreover, the Swiss aircraft had been immaculately maintained and had some extras ours did not, such as radar warning equipment, anti-skid brakes, inertial navigation and chaff/flare buckets.
The first F-5N (the designation for former Swiss aircraft in Naval service, a tribute to our old F-16Ns), was delivered to VFC-13 at NAS Fallon in January 2004. As of October 2005, 17 F-5Ns have been delivered to both VFC-13 and VMFT-401. Thirteen additional aircraft are scheduled for delivery in FY ’06.
In fact, the F-5Ns were such a bargain that the Navy Reserve allocated funding in FY ’04 and FY ’05 to procure 12 additional aircraft. These additional F-5Ns will be assigned to VFC-13’s permanent detachment at NAS Key West, which was established in October 2005.
NSAWC Warriors Superbly Qualified
Our adversary pilots are all SFTI graduates who have passed the most rigorous training to qualify them as a Level IV adversary pilot, instructor and trainer. In our Reserve units, you will find aviators with thousands of hours of Hornet and Tomcat time who provide the best possible training and threat replication. At NSAWC, the warriors assigned to our Naval Aviation center of excellence continue to build upon the success of the Topgun and “Strike U” grads who went before them. They may be flying older airplanes, but as the fleet JOs will tell you, they can make those aircraft do things that will have a crew in a brand-new Super Hornet sweating bullets!
Adversary remains an important building block of Naval Aviation training at the individual and unit level. While some may question the need for this training in an era of reduced (but certainly not nonexistent) air threats, adversary is far more than turning and burning. It deals with realistic presentations of threats that could materialize over the Middle East or Western Pacific. It also preserves one of our most perishable skills, which is why NSAWC, the adversary model manager for the Navy, maintains such high standards for aviators who want to fly Red (adversary) air.
One example of the continuing need for these skills can be found in our sister service, the Air Force. They too disestablished several full-time adversary (“aggressor” squadrons, in Air Force-speak) units in the 1990s, leaving only a single F-16 unit with seven aircraft at Nellis AFB to provide Red air training support. What the Air Force discovered was that relying on rotating units to provide Red air does not produce the same quality of training as having a dedicated aggressor force. In addition, Air Force commitments overseas limited the number of units that could provide Red air, even on a rotational basis.
Because of that, in FY ’05 the Air Force added 11 F-16s to the Nellis aggressor force and in FY ’06 will stand up a second dedicated aggressor unit equipped with F-15Cs. Both NSAWC and the Nellis weapons schools are working closely on standardizing their threat presentation briefings and capabilities to maintain this championship-quality training for the fleet!
Keep supporting Naval Aviation and keep charging!
Ed Note: RADM Tom Kilcline, a 1973 graduate of the Naval Academy, was designated a Naval Aviator in 1975 and received orders as a pilot to the fighter community where he flew operationally with VF-51, VF-126 and VF-213. Kilcline has commanded VF-154, Carrier Air Wing 14 and Carrier Group Two.
Shore assignments include the staff of 2nd Fleet, CNO Chair to the National War College, Executive Assistant to Deputy, European Command, Chief of Staff for Commander Naval Air Forces, and most recently, Director, Naval Aviation Plans and Requirements (N780). He was named Director, Air Warfare Division in August 2004.
RADM Kilcline in 32 years has amassed more than 5,300 flight hours in the F-4, F-14, F/A-18, A-4 and F-5 aircraft, and has logged 1,150 carrier arrested landings.