Air Force, Navy fighter squadrons team for dissimilar training

  • Published
  • By Jenna McMullin
  • 33rd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
NAVAL AIR STATION KEY WEST, Fla. --  The blue flights caps were the first sign something different had landed here.

The 60th Fighter Squadron from the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., deployed 16 F-15Cs and more than 200 personnel June 15 for two weeks of dissimilar air combat training as an exercise in joint training operations with the Navy.

Meshing the services' training objectives illuminated one goal of the 60th FS DACT exercise, said Capt. Joe Chennault, project officer for the deployment.

"It's not an every day occurrence for us to work so closely with the Navy," Captain Chennault said. "Whether I'm talking real-time in a combat-theater mission or a training sortie, I now know what I need to say to make them understand and vice versa."

The F-15Cs engaged in DACT with F-5s from NAS Key West's VFC-111 Aggressor Squadron as well as F-18E Super Hornets and F/A-18 Hornets from VFA-122 and VFA-125, respectively, NAS Lemoore, Calif.

"It's good for all of us to see how the other service operates," said Navy Lt. Brad Garms, fleet replacement squadron instructor, VFA-122. "Over the last few years, the Navy and Air Force have begun to standardize the operating tactical environment."

For one 60th FS pilot, the training environment struck a familiar chord. Capt. Rob Fowler was a weapons system officer in the F-15E Strike Eagle prior to becoming an F-15C pilot and completed his graduate flight about four years ago while training at NAS Key West.

"For me, I can understand [the Navy's] mentality," Captain Fowler said. "The way they approach their flights is different from how we employ."

From the planning process to tactics, the mission at Key West is primarily focused on air-to-ground employment. The visiting F-15Cs provided bandit presentations to help the Hornet pilots hone air-to-air capabilities.

"All fighters can learn how we fight air to air because we're specialists at it," Captain Fowler said.

Captain Fowler said fighting dissimilar benefits the Eagle pilots, too, because they have to learn to exploit dissimilar aircraft weaknesses by learning the adversary's tactics and mindset. At home, F-15Cs usually fly against each other simulating the adversary; here, the adversary is truly dissimilar.

Not only is the adversary dissimilar, the operating language differs, too. The Navy and Air Force terminology gap presented challenges for each service's pilots during the briefing and debriefing phases of joint training missions. For example, in the Air Force, pilots "step" to the jet, while Navy pilots "walk."

"We may have a different way of saying something, but the words have the same meaning," said Capt. Matt Minkley, 60th FS pilot.

Captain Minkley added both services' pilots recognized the different terminology, but made efforts to "translate."

Maintaining the jets' flying health on a sister-service installation also required flexibility.

"The biggest challenge has been the language of the Navy," said Capt. Toby Walker, 60th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, officer-in-charge. "Plus, the support functions differ from the Air Force."

From bringing all the necessary parts and equipment to accommodating JP-5 jet fuel instead of JP-8 jet fuel, maintainers were also learning how to operate on their own, similar to a forward-operating location in wartime.

"Because we don't have a fellow Air Force Eagle community nearby we have to be self-sustaining," Captain Walker said.

Being self-sufficient meant ensuring all equipment was on-hand for any problem a jet encountered. Three C-17s-full of F-15C-specific parts and equipment -- equivalent to 13 semi-truck shipments -- were brought to NAS Key West from Eglin Air Force Base by the 3rd Airlift Squadron at Dover Air Force Base, Del., over two days. Even the cargo shipment achieved training missions as two new loadmasters were certified during the trip, Captain Chennault said.

"We had a lot of different cargo they're not used to carrying and we needed to get the cargo down here, and they needed the training," Captain Chennault said.

Ultimately, the DACT trip furthered both services' goals of combat readiness.

"Later down the road in a joint mission, knowing the capabilities we each bring, we can better tailor our mission," said Navy Lt. Dan Hannum, officer-in-charge for VFA-122.

Captain Chennault said the squadron is scheduled to fly more DACT missions with the Navy squadrons this week as well as with F-15As from the Florida Air National Guard, who are staging out of Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla. The missions with the FANG unit will also test both units' abilities to brief and debrief in two separate locations.

The 60th FS DACT deployment wraps up June 28.