combat aircraft

‘Spads’ in combat

The 94th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron

(EFS) was deployed to Al Dhafra from its

home at Joint Base Langley-Eustis during

Combat Aircraft’s visit. The squadron has

been extensively involved in OIR and

supported the attack on April 14 against

Syrian sites that were reportedly involved

in chemical weapons production and

storage. The operation was conducted in

response to a strike carried out by Syria

against civilians in Douma on April 7.

Launched in the early hours, the missions

targeted facilities near Damascus and

Homs. They came 100 years to the day

since the ‘Spads’  ew their  rst combat

missions and scored the squadron’s  rst

aerial victory during WW1.

On the subject of their missions,

squadron commander Lt Col ‘Habu’ said,

‘It’s very dynamic and complex. We are

living in the gray a lot of the time and a lot

of the decision-making authority lies with

the pilot. We have days when there isn’t

a lot of activity in our area; then there are

days with a range of di erent things going

on. Overall, these are long missions.

‘Our primary reason for being deployed

here is our ability to ensure air dominance

in the theater — that means defending

coalition forces on the ground and in

the air, so our primary role is defensive

counter-air [DCA].’ As well as  ying with

a standard load of AIM-120 AMRAAMs

(Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air

Missiles) and AIM-9X, the Raptors employ

the GBU-39 SDB. ‘The F-22 is a useful strike

platform, but we rely on other assets on

the ground and in the air to give us the

information we require for these missions.’

The Raptors are each supported by a

KC-10 tanker providing on-call support.

‘The KC-10 is very stable to refuel from and

having us all together at one base makes

that unit-level co-ordination easy.

We now have a series of

contracts that enable

us to e ciently move through the AOR.

That’s the great thing about this wing: we

have the tanker support and the tactical

command and control agencies such as

‘Kingpin’ that enable us to provide DCA

cover over a given period of time, in a very

speci c location, very e ectively.

‘We have a plan as we walk out of the

door to the jets, but it typically evolves.

The F-22 brings risk mitigation — it’s less

risky for an F-22 to be in a certain place at

a certain time than it might be for another

asset. Being a stealth airplane with the

sensor capability and the situational

awareness that we have can lower the risk

of conducting a particular mission.’

Further describing the F-22 missions

in the Middle East, Capt ‘Ramp’ says,

‘Only a few years after I left college it’s

very humbling and rewarding to be here

doing this job. A lot of people work very

hard to get a Raptor out on a mission.

We are all doing the job we joined

the USAF to do — it’s rewarding and

worthwhile and I’m proud to tell people

what I do. Being away from home means

that we are even more focused on the

mission; we don’t have the pressures of

home life. With our shift patterns I often

don’t see some colleagues for days.

You just have to trust they are doing

their job.’

Flying on the night shift means Capt

‘Ramp’ was on a cycle of sleeping during

the day, ready for the next mission. ‘It’s a

long haul and we generally have multiple

tanker brackets [hook-ups]. Once in the

AOR we need to stay up on our fuel state

in case we need to come o CAP and

react to something. Once on CAP, we are

Right: A clear

day in the

AOR; however,

thunderstorms

have been known

to build up in the

area, calling upon

some strong

airmanship.

Below: The

morning Raptor

mission heads

out. The dull

skies are from

the remnants of

a sand storm the

previous night.

34 August 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

FEATURE ARTICLE // 380TH AIR EXPEDITIONARY WING

28-39 Al Dhafra C.indd 34 21/06/2018 17:22