The Strike Eagle
community is in
little doubt as
to the benefit of
having a pilot
and WSO team
in the cockpit.the strafing mission it means that we have
to make even steeper passes.’
‘We have seen so many advances in
technology over the past 20 years. We’ve
switched to the Sniper [advanced
targeting pod] and away from LANTIRN,
which is a tremendous leap for us.’ Sniper
offers as much as five times the detection
range of its predecessor, as well as being
far less draggy for a heavily laden
Strike Eagle.
Two main initiatives dominate the Strike
Eagle’s current upgrade focus. The 90 ‘SJ’
jets are now being retrofitted with the
new Raytheon AN/APG-82(V)1 active
electronically scanned array (AESA) radar
under a protracted program that should
be complete by 2023. Replacing the old
APG-70 set with the new radar is a process
that takes around 70 days per aircraft. The
traits of a good AESA are well-known
— for the Strike Eagle it means picking out
air-to-air and air-to-ground targets
simultaneously. It adds synthetic aperture
modes and ground mapping functions.
Sage calls the new radar, ‘the best in
the world.’
While most of the Suites have focused
on the offensive capabilities of the Strike
Eagle, the forthcoming Eagle Passive/
Active Warning Survivability System
(EPAWSS) addresses the self-protection
side of the jet, which has hardly beenA monthly exercise named ‘Razor
Talon’ was initiated in 2011 to help
bring units together to integrate and
better prepare for the high-end fight.
Col Sage says: ‘We are the lead wing for
‘Razor Talon’ and we have the exercise’s
war room here on base at Seymour
Johnson. We work with the F-22s from
Langley and the F-16CMs from Shaw,
and will soon incorporate the Marine
Corps F-35s from Beaufort and also
from Cherry Point [when they arrive
there]. We have the airspace and tanker
support from the 916th ARW, but to
complete the east coast battlespace
we need an integrated air defense
system — placing threat emitters up
and down the coast so we can then not
only have a high-end air-to-air fight,
but also a high-end SAM [surface-to-air
missile] system to go up against.’
‘Razor Talon’ can typically involve
more than 50 aircraft engaged in
a range of missions including air
superiority, interdiction/deep strike,
SEAD (suppression of enemy air
defenses), CAS, sea control, defensive
counter-air and offensive counter-air.
Sage added: ‘We have the ability to do
adaptive basing, where the F-22s can
come down and be with us for a few
days. Another thing we are working on
is the possibility of using contractor-
provided Red Air so we can all be on
one side and train as one.’‘RAZOR TALON’
touched since it entered service. The
system (pronounced ‘e-pause’) is on
contract with Boeing and is intended to
maximize survivability against both
current and emerging threats. ‘Even
though our aircraft is 30 years old, our
systems and weapons are leading-edge,’
says Sage. ‘We have gone from being a
traditional bomb-dropper to doing CAS,
and now the focus and preparation is on
the high-end fight and battling in a
contested environment with integrated air
defense systems. We have come from
primarily being an air-to-ground weapon
system with minimal self-defense to being
a dominant force in both the air-to-air and
air-to-ground missions. Our goal is to be
able to integrate seamlessly with the F-22s
and F-15Cs in the air-to-air arena as well as
being on the leading edge on the
air-to-ground front. A former commander
of mine called the Strike Eagle, ‘the SUV
[sports utility vehicle] of fighter aircraft’,
because we can carry so much and go
farther than most other aircraft. That’s why
the combatant commanders love
us so much.’New blood
The day-to-day flying operations of the
Seymour Johnson wing come under the
4th Operations Group (OG), which is
comprised of six squadrons: theFEATURE ARTICLE | 4TH FIGHTER WING
http://www.combataircraft.net January 201834
30-39 4th FW C.indd 34 23/11/2017 11:54