“We flew 4 F-15s and 4 F-22s against 14 ‘red air’ fighters: Blue Air killed 41 enemy aircraft and lost just one. While pretty phenomenal, perfection is our goal so the debrief focused on how we could have had a 41-0 ratio,” Col. William Bladen, 104th FW
In order to participate in the Weapons Systems Evaluation Program (WSEP), over 250 Airmen and 9 F-15 Eagles from the 104th Fighter Wing (FW), Massachusetts Air National Guard (ANG), as well as Canadian F-18, F-35, F-16, and F-22 aircraft, recently deployed to Tyndall Air Force Base (AFB), Florida.
As stated in the article 104th Fighter Wing Eagles on Target at the United States Air Force’s Weapons Systems Evaluation Program, the aircraft is loaded and fires live missiles as part of WSEP, according to Master Sgt. Julie Avey of the 104th Fighter Wing. The WSEP assesses the technical data, maintenance, aircrew, weaponry, weapons delivery systems, and weapons. The aim is to assess operational effectiveness, confirm the performance of weapons systems, establish dependability, and assess capabilities.
“The WSEP does two things,” said Col. Jeffrey Rivers, Commander of the 83rd Fighter Weapons Squadron, Weapons Systems Evaluation Program. “It feeds Combat Air Force’s (CAF) training and readiness. We get aircrew experience for the first time subsequent to the events, sounds, sights, smells, and noise of a real missile coming off the jet in a realistic scenario they would find normally in training but now it is with real weapons and real targets to shoot at.”
Only nine of the 221 missions were not flown by the unit because of weather. Additionally, the 104th FW flew 293.1 hours during WSEP with an 83% mission-competent rate and successfully deployed 17 missiles.
Additionally, the 104th FW fired 14,661 bullets, totaling a flawless shooting rate of all aircraft weapons.
“Our deployment to Tyndall really had two different but complementary themes,” said Col. William Bladen, 104th FW, Operations Group Commander. “The WSEP portion focused on exercising and testing the kill chain from the missile build all the way through its destruction of a target. It takes several miracles for a missile to complete an intercept. If anyone of them fails, the kill chain is broken. WSEP tested our people and our machines and both performed exceptionally well.”
According to Bladen, the second component of the deployment included large force exercises (LFEs) and 4-ship training with an emphasis on air-to-air confrontations.
“With several other fighter airframes on the Gulf Coast, we were able to put together daily outnumbered scenarios that we cannot produce up here at Barnes. On the last day of the trip, we flew 4 F-15s and 4 F-22s against 14 “red air” fighters. For our training, we allowed the red air to regenerate after being killed by a blue air fighter. The final results of that mission: Blue Air killed 41 enemy aircraft and lost just one. While pretty phenomenal, perfection is our goal so the debrief focused on how we could have had a 41-0 ratio.”
Although the results of the mock battles are pretty remarkable, they are not a surprise. As we’ve already written, the F-15 is a real “air superiority master” with an unsurpassed air-to-air kill ratio of 104 to 0. When the Eagle is combined with the fifth-generation capabilities of the F-22 stealth fighter, the odds of an adversary aircraft winning an air-to-air battle are extremely slim.
Photo by Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker, Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald / U.S. Air Force
