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Luke Lightnings
The 56th Fighter Wing at Luke AFB is a
centre of excellence for F-35A pilot and
maintainer training as the Joint Strike
Fighter’s capabilities continually expand.
Given this place’s heritage and track record,
it was little wonder that the USAF wanted
Luke to be a major player when it came
to the F-35A. The resident 56th FW has
been earmarked to host up to 144 F-35As.
Furthermore, the 56th FW is not only about
building the pilot and maintainer cadre
for the USAF, it is also the hub for training
international F-35 partners with Australia,
Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway,
South Korea and Turkey all training here.
The first F-35A arrived at the Arizona base
on March 10, 2014, wearing the famous ‘LF’
tailcode. The first student pilot training
sortie was completed here on March 18.
‘Student pilot’ is something of a misnomer,
seeing as the honour fell to none other than
‘Luke 1’ – Brig Gen Scott Pleus, the 56th FW
commander, and a seasoned F-16 pilot with
20-years-plus experience of flying single-
seat fighters. Fittingly, Pleus became the
first USAF pilot to switch to the F-35 at Luke
AFB as he commenced the flying portion
of his upgrade training to join Luke’s F-35A
instructor cadre. Pleus commented: “The
F-35 is going to be the backbone of the air
force’s fighter fleet for decades to come and
Luke will play a vital role in producing the
world’s greatest, most lethal F-35 pilots.”
Initially, crossover pilots joined the 61st
FS ‘Top Dogs’ to fuel the instructor and
operational test pilot cadre, with partner
nation and USAF ab initio pilots following
thereafter. Lt Col Gregory ‘Merc’
Frana started his F-35 journey
at Eglin with the 58th FS
before moving across to Luke
to become the commander of
the 62nd FS – Luke’s second
F-35 unit. “I was one of the first
guys they bought in here to stand up
F-35 operations at Luke,” he says. As an
experienced F-15E Strike Eagle pilot, Frana
was selected for the F-35 programme early
to enter training as an initial instructor pilot
and started his training on the new jet at
Eglin in January 2013. “I was selected as
one of the initial cadre [of USAF pilots]
to fly the F-35. I flew it at Eglin for about
six months before I came out to Luke.”
Unlike the previous format of specific F-16
squadrons teaching specific trades, the F-35
plan at Luke will see each unit teaching the
same syllabus – from the first take-off to
full-up surface attack tactics (SATs). Oneof the major issues facing F-35
training squadrons has been
the availability of aircraft with
sufficiently mature software
to allow meaningful training.
This situation is very different
now compared with the initial
training setup at Eglin when pilots
started out with the basic Block 1A software.
Back then some pilots referred to the mission
systems as being “extremely immature”.
The training course for crossover students is
heavily supported by simulator work as one
would expect in the modern era, with the live
flying currently consisting of just seven flights
plus three optional extra flights, based on
previous experience. “They fly four transition
sorties where they do ILS [instrument landing
system], formation work and all the basic
things,” said Frana. “They then fly one basic
SAT mission and a tactical intercept ride,
culminating with a single check ride.”thereafter. Lt Col Gregory ‘Merc’F-35 unit. “I was one of the first
guys they bought in here to stand upof the major issues facing F-35
training squadrons has been
the availability of aircraft withThis situation is very different
now compared with the initial
training setup at Eglin when pilotsTouchdown – back
on the runway at Luke
AFB. Jim Haseltine