Weapons School
The 6th Weapons Squadron was activated as the F-35A Lightning II
squadron for the US Air Force Weapons School on June 20, 2017.
The 6th WPS is projected to be the Weapons School’s largest squadron
by 2023, with 30 instructors and 24 assigned F-35As. It will be the
centre of excellence for pilot tactics and procedures within the USAF.ABOVE: The 6th WPS has been established as the F-35A Weapons Squadron at Nellis AFB. USAF/SSgt
Daryn Murphy INSERT: A patch from the 6th WPS alludes to an uno cial name for the F-35 – ‘Panther’.
F-3549
The 6th WPS is projected to be the Weapons School’s largest squadronMaj Gen Tsanko Stoykov, Bulgarian Air Force
commander, added: “Our efforts have been
appreciated and we are trusted as a reliable
ally and it immensely contributes to the
development of the bilateral relations between
our two counties and our two air forces.”
Following their arrival in the UK,
more extensive missions followed local
familiarisation alongside the F-15Cs. A
news release stated: “Pilots and maintainers
are generating roughly ten sorties a day,
training alongside F-15Cs and F-15Es from
the 48th FW, as well as the Royal Air Force
and other NATO allies.” The Kadena
deployment appears to have followed a
similar path. Lt Col Jason Zumwalt, who
was at the time the commander of the 493rd
FS at Lakenheath that was hosting theF-35s, said: “We’ve had the opportunity to
go out with a building block approach and
fly one Eagle with one F-35 fighting each
other. Then we built on that and got into
the bigger exercises, culminating in today
where we had four F-15Cs, four F-15Es
and four F-35s plus some RAF Typhoons
all working together to accomplish a single
mission against a very robust enemy threat.
There was simulated air-to-ground going
on with some F-15Es striking a target. The
F-15Cs led out with the F-35s in an integrated
air operation to sweep the airspace of the
enemy aircraft and then get the strikers into
the simulated targets to drop their bombs,
and then escort everybody back out.”
“The sensor fusion capability of the F-35A
gives [our F-15s] unprecedented situational
awareness which is invaluable when you’re
fighting against a high-end threat,” said Lt
Col Scott Taylor, an F-15C pilot with the
‘Grim Reapers’. “The key is it allows us
to make quicker, more accurate decisions
on targets. We fight best when we fight
together. We’ve had a lot of synergy in
our training. When we come back and
talk after missions, we can have that face-
to-face interaction and review our tactics.
That’s just going to improve the way we
fight with the F-35A and has made this an
outstanding deployment,” Taylor concluded.
“For me, it’s my first time dogfighting
against an F-15,” commented Maj Luke
Harris, another F-35A pilot with the ‘Rams’.
“Dogfighting is a test of pilot skill, but it’s
also constrained by the aircraft’s capabilities
and I’ve been really impressed by the flight
control and manoeuvrability of the F-35.”
He added that the attributes of the F-35 are
meant to help avoid an adversary getting to
the visual merge and a turning fight. “All
the guys we’ve flown with have said that
having the F-35 in the fight has been an
eye-opening experience and they’re glad
that these capabilities are on their side.”
Meanwhile, the 388th and 419th FWs
completed the first long-term overseas
deployment with the F-35A, on May 5,- During the six-month deployment, the
34th and 466th FS pilots flew 1,086 sorties
and conducted mini-deployments to
eight other locations in the region.
ABOVE: The USAF’s 422nd TES ‘Green Bats’ at Nellis AFB is engaged in operational testing for the F-35A. Dan Stijovich