A crisp echelon
of specially
marked
112th FS jets.
Both carry
the Sniper
targeting pod,
and AIM-9X
and AIM-120
missiles.Acknowledgements: The author wishes to thank
Lt Col Gregory Barasch, Lt Col Katherine Cherolis
and all at the 112th FS.[sensor enhancement] with a
high-de nition connection
from the pod to the CDU for a
better picture, plus it will act as a nice
big tactical display.’Deployments
The squadron’s location means its
crews feel the bene t of a range of
local exercises, including large force
employment (LFE) missions. The day-to-
day program tends to have a signi cant
in uence from the new pilots coming
through, working up through defensive
counter-air, o ensive counter-air and
surface attack missions. ‘We have to
rely on a lot of self-supported ‘Red Air’
here’, explains Barasch. ‘We don’t have a
cadre of aggressor-trained guys but not
all phases of training require that kind
of training. Even when a pilot is ying a
‘Red Air’ mission we can balance it out by
giving them some ‘Blue Air’ time on that
sortie. For our ‘Northern Strike’ exercise
this summer, where we work with the
Alpena CRTC [Combat Readiness Training
Center] in Michigan, they’re going to
bring in some contracted ‘Red Air’.
‘We have a massive airspace complex
up in Michigan that enables us to y both
air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. Tothe south we have the Buckeye complex
near Columbus, which is another large
[area of ] airspace, from the surface up
to 50,000ft. Out in Indiana we also have
multiple bombing ranges. Flying from
Toledo is a big advantage for us because
we see a huge di erence in the weather
patterns, which means if it’s bad in one
area it’s usually ne in the other.’
Last year was a busy one for the
112th. Following a January air-to-air
winter training detachment to MacDill
AFB, Florida, the squadron deployed
to Hungary for exercise ‘Load Di user’
in May and June. ‘We ew with the
Hungarian Gripens plus lot of NATO
countries in the region during the three-
week exercise. We got back and went
straight to ‘Red Flag’ at Nellis in August,
which was our preparation for a TSP
[Theater Support Package] to Europe,
which we were preparing to deploy on
shortly after Christmas.’
This took the ‘Stingers’ to Ämari air base,
Estonia, where they arrived on January
14 in support of Operation ‘Atlantic
Resolve’.http://www.combataircraft.net // May 2018 79
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