By 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, / Published April 01,
2015
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- The 56th Fighter Wing
flew its 1,000th F-35A Lightning II training sortie March 31, making it the
fastest F-35 wing to reach the 1,000-sortie milestone in the Defense
Department.
This is the second historic milestone in the past two weeks.
Last week, Luke’s first F-35 student sortie was flown marking a significant
step forward for the Airmen at Luke in realizing its new mission -- training
the world's greatest F-35 and F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter pilots. That student
was the commander of the 56th Fighter Wing, Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, who is
making the transition from the F-16 to the F-35.
The first official class of student pilots is scheduled to
begin in May, at the Academic Training Center, a 145,000-square-foot, two-story
training center.
"I’m extremely proud of the extraordinary work our
maintainers are doing to ensure our pilots have mission-ready and safe
jets," Pleus said. “The F-35 is going to be the backbone of the Air
Force's fighter fleet for decades to come and Luke will play a vital role in
producing the world's greatest, most lethal F-35 pilots. With initial
operational capability scheduled to occur late next year, it's important that
we get our training program and process dialed in and as efficient and refined
as our F-16 training program is, so we can help meet the Air Force's scheduled
goal."
Pleus also reflected on the years of work that have gone into
the F-35 program putting Luke in position to begin training in May.
“Getting to this point hasn’t just been accomplished over
the past few months. It’s really been done over the last few years,” he said.
“Lots of amazing Airmen who served before us here at Luke are the reason we are
where we are with the F-35 program. What they did back then to set the base up
is the reason why we will be so successful training the world’s greatest F-35
pilots.”
There are 20 F-35s assigned to Luke, two of which belong to
the Royal Australian air force, an F-35 pilot training, partner nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment