special operation demanding their presence
they will return to them as ordinary aircrew.
The Center also incorporates a large,
modern maintenance division, assigned
to expose every system to the toughest
conditions to assess how to handle it
from a sustainment standpoint.
After the results of each test are processed,
evaluated and written up as new procedures
and methods, it’s up to the Center todistribute and brief them to the rest of the
IAF’s squadrons. Frontline pilots regularly
attend briefings – including flight instructors
from the Hatzerim Flight Academy, for
whom the Flight Test Center evaluates
training platforms and recommends types.
The Center’s remit also includes evaluating
enemy aircraft captured by the Israel
Defense Forces – work that’s yielded priceless
intelligence for the IAF and its allies.During the 1990s, Western intelligence
indicated that the Soviet-designed MiG-29
off ered various advantages in aerial combat
over advanced Western fi ghters. Beginning
with the 1991 Gulf War, US and allied air
forces began to encounter the jet in combat.
To study the fi ghter’s capabilities, Israelborrowed three MiG-29s from Poland in 1997,
the Flight Test Center then evaluating their
manoeuvrability and air-to-ground and air-
to-air capabilities. Tests included simulated
aerial combat with frontline IAF squadrons.
One of the MiGs even carried the Center’s
emblem during its stay in Israel.MiG-29s over
Israel
Special Sufa
Since the unit’s expected to work with every
airborne platform in the IAF inventory, it
borrows equipment from across the air
force as required. However, the importance
of the fighter fleet is such that F-15s and
F-16s are permanently assigned to it.
The ‘Vipers’ represent different
variants of the aircraft in IAF service:
F-16C Block 30, F-16D Block 30,
F-16D Block 40 and F-16I Sufa.
With the arrival of the F-16I, the IAF lacked
a similarly advanced platform to serve
as a ‘surrogate’ for systems testing. The
Center’s solution was to adapt an existing
F-16C, maintenance personnel taking
F-16C Barak 301 and making numerous
internal and external modifications
to replicate the two-seat Sufa.
They installed avionics, flight control
systems and conformal fuel tanks,
essentially producing a single-seat
F-16I, the modifications enabling test
work to continue without depleting
the frontline Sufa squadrons.
In recent years the IAF has been through
a major modernisation, taking on new
platforms for various missions. It
began with the C-130J for the transport
fleet and continued with the M-346.
At the end of last year the IAF received
its first two F-35Is, which are assigned
to the Flight Test Center and fully
instrumented. With plans to incorporate
increasing levels of indigenous avionics
and weapons on the type, the facility
will be kept busy in the years to come. AFM
Below: F-16I Sufa 401 has telemetry markings
applied to an underwing hardpoint, suggesting
recent stores separation trials. This aircraft, c/n
YD-1, FMS 00-1001, was the fi rst F-16I delivered.As well as the F-16I Sufa the Flight Test Center
operates examples of the F-16C Block 30, F-16D
Block 30 and F-16D Block 40. This is two-seater
F-16D Barak 601 (c/n CK-01, FMS 90-0875).IAF74 // SEPTEMBER 2017 #354 http://www.airforcesmonthly.comFLIGHT TEST FOCUS