NEW PATH
TO THE
‘VIPER’
Lt Martijn took an interesting path to
Tucson as he was selected to be the rst
RNLAF pilot to undertake his training
under a new arrangement with the Italian
Air Force at Lecce. This saw him and
another student training (along with an
IP) in the T-346 Master as a trial. It was an
experiment that has been abandoned in
favor of continued training at Sheppard
AFB under the Euro-NATO Joint Pilot
Training System, which it believes
provides a stronger basis for future
ghter pilots.
‘We covered a lot of subjects; air-to-
ground, air-to-air and of course just the
basics’, says Martijn. ‘We arrive there with
only 30 hours of [Pilatus] PC-7 ying.’
The other Dutch students in Tucson had
followed the traditional path through
the T-38 at Sheppard AFB. Martijn could
see a di erence in a few areas from the
two streams. ‘We ew a lot of the same
syllabus as the guys at Sheppard, but I
think they focused a little bit more on the
air-to-air than air-to-ground during IFF
[introduction to ghter fundamentals].
Because Italy has a lot of air-to-ground
assets they y a lot of that, so that’s one of
the di erences that we encountered. I’d
say the guys from Sheppard were a littlebetter-prepared for the air-to-air phase
in the beginning, especially in the within
visual range phase, but after that the all-
new tricks like BVR and the sheer range of
sorties was new ground for all of us.
‘It’s always di cult in the beginning
because we don’t know the systems or
how to y the tactics. Sure, we know
certain elements, but we don’t always
know why we do it because we are still
forming the bigger picture — we might
be being taught a speci c maneuver,
for example, and we won’t know why
this particular maneuver is useful until it
becomes clear later in the syllabus. You
learn as you go, with those explanations
coming along the way, and I’m enjoying
putting it all together.’walking around that were here when I
rst started as a student in 1991. We also
have a bunch of young kids as well, so
we have a nice mix of experience. I think
we’re a little bit more of a relaxed unit if
you compare us to other units on base —
and, yeah, I know that makes them very
happy to work for us.’
As ‘Niki’ adds, ‘Holland knows that, from
an air force perspective, America is our
most important partner’. F-16 training
will continue in Tucson with the 162nd
Fighter Wing until at least the end of the
current contract period in 2022. After
that it will focus on F-35A training at Luke
AFB, near Phoenix. ‘In 2019 we will start
producing F-35 pilots, so there will be an
overlap of about three to four years where
we train F-35 and F-16 pilots at the same
time, all in Arizona’, he outlines. ‘By 2022,
we will have trained the last F-16 pilot.
By 2025 we will cease F-16 operations
in the Royal Netherlands Air Force and
we will close the curtain on what I think
is the most successful combat aircraft
that the world has ever seen to date. I
don’t think there has ever been a more
successful or more capable ghter in the
world that lasted this long. I think the
F-16 is an absolute success story. Show
me a piece of hardware that has worked
that hard, that long and that successfully
in Dutch defense history. There is none.
It’s unparalleled. It will be a very sad, but
hopefully a very special and big day
when that curtain nally falls.’Bottom:
Dutch pilots
have had an
outstanding
experience with
the F-16. It’s little
wonder they are
so enthusiastic
about the
potential of the
F-35A.
Frank Crébas/
Bluelife Aviation
Below right:
Lt Martijn came
to the F-16 from a
lead-in fi ghter-
training course on
the Italian T-346
Master.UNIT REPORT // DUTCH F-16 TRAINING IN THE US
78 June 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
70-78 148th FS C.indd 78 20/04/2018 09:51