DFT provides realistic training

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. David Kurle
  • 442nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The missions of the 442nd Fighter Wing's disparate organizations lead to one ultimate goal - using deadly force from the air against America's enemies using real bombs, missiles and bullets.

That's why training opportunities, like the wing's recent deployment here, are valuable according pilots and maintainers.

"We wanted to do something we couldn't do at home station," said Lt. Col. Preston McConnell, the deployment's ranking officer and 303rd Fighter Squadron A-10 pilot. "I really wanted to build our pilots' confidence in building coordinates and weapons delivery using JDAMs."

The deployment for training - or DFT - marked the first time the wing's pilots dropped live joint-direct-attack munitions - specifically, GBU-38 GPS-guided bombs. The capability to drop JDAM weapons was made possible by the wing's recent upgrade to the C-model A-10 Thunderbolt II.

"Those bombs are amazing," said Major Todd Riddle, 303rd FS A-10 pilot. "I'm hitting targets from six miles away out there."

Pilots weren't the only beneficiaries during the DFT - bomb-builders from the 442nd maintenance squadron constructed and delivered live weapons to the flight-line they don't have the opportunity to work with at their home base - Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.

"These are the first live JDAMs this group has built," said Senior Master Sgt. David Hamilton, the ranking munitions specialist for the DFT. "It was good training since we don't drop live at home. It was nice to get our Airmen to work on the real thing."

The "Ammo" Airmen built and delivered 14 GBU-38s and XX AGM-65 Maverick missiles for A-10 pilots to use on the bombing range.

The main attraction at Hill is the nearby Utah Test and Training Range - or UTTR - a large piece of real-estate west of the Great Salt Lake, which boasts XXXX square miles, which allows for the employment of live munitions.

"You go from hundreds of acres to hundreds-of-thousands of acres," Colonel McConnell said, comparing the UTTR to the much smaller Cannon Range the wing's pilots typically fly to from Whiteman. "It's a very unique range because of what you can drop here and what you can drop on.

"We get to drop live munitions on targets, which are actually real targets," he said, explaining that the range provides actual vehicles, armored-personnel carriers and other true-to-life surplus items for pilots to find and attack - not just markings on the ground.

The other advantage of the UTTR is the type of weapons all that space allows, according to Colonel McConnell. One of those weapons is the AGM-65 Mavrick missile, which is designed to hit moving targets, but requires a lot of air and ground space to fire safely.

"For quite a few of our pilots, this is the first opportunity they've had to shoot Mavericks at combat-representative targets," he said.

Training with weapons the wing is likely to see in combat is also good for maintainers who build and load the weapons.

"Our primary mission here was the JDAMs and the AGM-65," Sergeant Hamilton said. "It's good for these guys to get hands-on experience with the live ones."

The DFT further enhanced the wing's combat training because the terrain and environment at Hill and the UTTR are very similar to where the wing may find itself deployed in the near future.

"This is a great place to train for Afghanistan," said Maj. Lee Saugstad, the DFT's project officer and an A-10 pilot. "This is much more of a representation of Afghanistan than at home."

The arid, mountainous terrain and the 4,700-foot elevation on the ground at Hill are similar to conditions the wing encountered in previous deployments to Afghanistan.

When it comes to training, there's no substitute for experience with the real thing, according to Major Saugstad.

"There's something to be said for not playing in your own backyard all the time," he said. "It's always a good thing to go somewhere else so we can be prepared to go into a combat situation at a strange field."