90th FS Pilots, equipment tested at Tyndall AFB

by Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett
JBER Public Affairs

4/11/2014 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- Air Force Capt. William Albert could feel the missile bay door opening on his F-22 Raptor as the Air Intercept Missile-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile was launched outside, the rocket motor then engaged, giving the missile speed and shooting it out into the sky near Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., March 19, 2014.

The target was an orange, remotely-piloted, BGM-167A Subscale Aerial Target, designed as an evasive target for fighter jets during a Weapon System Evaluation Program at Tyndall Air Force Base. Twelve jets and more than 200 people, including 25 pilots, went to Tyndall Air Force Base to evaluate everything from procedures to equipment.

"It was pretty cool," said Albert, an F-22 pilot with the 90th Fighter Squadron out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. "I could feel the launcher kicking the missile out of the jet."

Once the rocket motor burnt out, the smoke trail stopped and the pilot lost sight of the missile. He watched the progress on the radar.

Albert wasn't the only pilot monitoring the drone on radar. He and Air Force Maj. Russell Badowski and were the third and fourth shooters against the drone. They flew parallel to each other, about a mile apart, and simultaneously fired their AIM-120 missiles.

Albert's missile got there first. For training purposes, the missiles didn't have warheads - his missile speared the drone.

"I was able to see it twist and turn as the drone basically disintegrated at the moment of impact and dropped out of the sky," said the pilot from Olympia, Wash. "It was pretty cool to get to see what that looked like on the radar."

Badowski's missile connected seconds later, hitting the already-damaged target.

"It was pretty cool for both of us to get that kind of success on a shot at a $750,000 drone," Albert said.

Going to WSEP is a Pacific Air Forces requirement. The program is run by the 83rd Fighter Weapons Squadron, part of the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group at Tyndall Air Force Base. The 90th FS went there from March 17 to 28 for the two-week evaluation.

"The Air Combat Command commander has a directive that he would like everyone to get evaluated down there on a regular basis," said Badowski, director of operations for the 90th FS. "However, due to our remote location, funding and deployment requirements, we haven't been able to go since 2010."

The program ensures the jets work, the maintainers have them ready to go, the AMRAAM launchers and the AIM-9 launchers are working appropriately, and the fire control system on the aircraft is working appropriately, Badowski said. It validates the missiles are made properly. The whole system is validated by going to this evaluation.

"I thought just loading them up was a lot of fun," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Jonathan Miller, 90th FS weapons team chief and native of Chino Hills, Calif. "The pilots came; they were all excited. They were still all hyped up when they came back. Everyone was really excited, it was a good experience."

It's important to have the experience of physically firing weapons, Badowski said.

"If we were to get called to go to war," Badowski said, "a lot of the young guys have never seen what it looks like to actually have a missile come off the jet; to see what the smoke plume is going to look like; to verify that missile is looking the way that it should. It's good for the guys to have that experience before the first time is in the heat of battle."

The pilots shot 12,000 rounds of bullets through every M-61 A1 gun they brought to ensure they were working properly, he said.

"When there's a Gatling gun that's going off about 10 feet over your shoulder, knowing what it feels like in the jet and having the sights, sounds and experiences those things are crucial because while we train, we don't have actual ammunition coming from the jet," he said. "We train on a daily basis but you don't get to experience what that feels like."

WSEP was developed in the Vietnam War, he said. It is designed to validate the pilots, the aircraft and the missiles to make sure they function properly.

"It was definitely a really valuable experience as a fighter pilot, to use your primary weapon and feel what it's like to have a missile come off the jet and actually hit something," Albert said.

"WSEP provides us the opportunity to evaluate the man, the machine and the missile," Badowki said. "We make sure everything is working perfectly so that when we go to war, we can go in confidence that everything is going to work as it's supposed to and we can be successful."