November, 2004: The 494th Mighty Black Panthers were going to war! Well, not really…but we still had big plans for our five-week deployment to the States. We call it the Roadshow: off to shoot live missiles, drop live bombs and rage around the deserts of Nevada with our NATO allies.

The Roadshow

A deployment like this challenged all aspects of the logistics chain: moving fourteen F-15E Strike Eagles, two hundred people and countless containers of equipment over four thousand miles for five weeks is no small task.

We departed RAF Lakenheath midmorning on July 23rd for our first stop: Tyndall AFB in sunny Panama City Beach, Florida.  Nine and a half hours - and eight air-to-air refuelings - later, we were greeted by our 494th Aero-Maintenance Unit ( AMU) ground crews and a wall of humidity as the canopies were raised.

It was impressive to see the operation go so smoothly despite being far from home base - all the jets made it there safely on the first day. Our F-15C brethren of the 493rd FS “Grim Reapers” had just arrived for the same program and would be joining us in Nevada later on as well.

Tyndall AFB is home to the 53rd Weapons Evaluations Group ( WEG), which oversees the two programs in which we were to participate: exercises Combat Archer and Combat Hammer.  Their mission, as the name implies, is to continue to expand our understanding of the capabilities and limitations of our weapons, both air-to-air (missiles) and air-to-ground (bombs).  While many of the weekend days were in fact work days needed to get organized for the following week, there was time for some fun. We were welcomed to Florida in grand style by the WEG’s Director of Operations, Lt.Col Bill “Fish” Fisher, the first Saturday with a day at the Tyndall park beach, a barbeque and a chance to try out his jet skis on the bay.

Combat Archer

Combat Archer is held in Florida over the Gulf of Mexico and evaluates the performance of missiles against remotely controlled airplanes or “drones”.  During our two weeks there, we shot ten missiles in total: two AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles ( AMRAAM's), two AIM-9 “Sidewinders” and six venerable AIM-7 “Sparrows”.

Six drones were launched in support of our firings, including one full-scale QF-4 Phantom. The Panthers could chalk up one drone kill, but a kill was not the only measure of success. All but one missile were deemed successful: the direct result of many hours of hard work and good training by the maintenance and operations groups. In addition to firing missiles, we participated in academics and continuation training ( CT) to maintain proficiency across the full spectrum of our taskings. The missile academics were taught by subject-matter experts from Boeing and the WEG. Many of the CT missions included training against F-15C's from the Grim Reapers, F-16 Fighting Falcons (or Vipers in Air Force slang) and the new F/A-22 Raptor.

We brought roughly 50 aviators on this deployment - the largest single squadron Combat Archer has ever seen. Not all of them were able to shoot a missile however - in fact, it is a rare honor that most only receive once in a career. Accordingly, this was the first time for all of our shooters. Even more importantly, it was the first time for many of our maintenance and weapons personnel to load and arm live missiles, giving them valuable hands-on experience we will utilize in our future deployments.

Combat Hammer

We left the resounding success of Combat Archer behind on the 6th of August as we relocated to Hill AFB, Utah. There, a subsidiary of the WEG, the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron ( FWS), operates Combat Hammer as a tenant unit.  Similar to Combat Archer, Combat Hammer is the air-to-ground weapons evaluation, and the Utah Test and Training Range provides the safe, isolated and controlled environment necessary to accurately test these weapons.

Ramping up for the exercise, crews practiced their EGBU-15 skills using a small simulator brought along on deployment and spent Sunday putting the final mission planning together for their Monday drop of six. This weapon is guided from the cockpit by the Weapons Systems Officer ( WSO or Wizzo in Air Force slang); you have probably seen some of their videos on CNN.

We were also scheduled for ten Joint Direct Attack Munitions ( JDAM's) and six CBU-103 Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispensers ( WCMD's).  These two represent the new era of so-called “smart weapons” that have received a lot of media attention since Operation Enduring Freedom. The Panthers are now the first F-15E squadron to have dropped the CBU-103 WCMD.

Dropping JDAM's, we showed that our jet is as accurate with targeting from on-board systems (such as the air-to-ground radar) as with pre-planned GPS coordinates from Intelligence.  Valuable lessons learned from these drops will be put in updated Tech Orders and tactics manuals.

Although there were some hiccups with the weapons, nothing unsafe occurred and none were due to aircrew errors. The hard work maintenance put in throughout the week was crucial to our fantastic success: 95% of all scheduled sorties flew with 91% overall effectiveness. Also, all the weapons were built and delivered on time. The Combat Hammer team gave awards to two “Air-to-Ground Superior Performers”: SrA Bobby Coffman of the 48th EMS/Munitions and SrA Juan Thomas of the 494th AMU/Weapons.

The Show Must Go On

Our thanks go out to the 86th FWS F-15E Project Officer, Lt Col Scott “Dobs” Stevenson, for taking care of us, and the their Operations Supervisor, MSgt Richard Christie, for his work with CT and night sorties. Our commander, Lt Col Daniel “Trash” DeBree, called the three weeks a great success, with a “solid, professional employment of all weapons”.  He made a point of giving kudos to the young aviators who employed these weapons for the first time.

By the time you read this article, we will have employed our newly honed skills at Red Flag, a full-up air war held several times a year at Nellis AFB, Nevada.  The two-week event allows many different airframes to come together in one large, realistic exercise with both US and international participants.  Having practiced our bomb droppin’ and missile shootin’ under intense scrutiny over the past three weeks, Red Flag will show that indeed the 494th Panthers are USAFE’s “Finest, Baddest and Meanest” Fighter Squadron.

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