Where does the German Air Force send its top Tornado pilots and weapons systems operators to cap off their training? Idaho. Yes, Idaho. Each October, Mountain Home Air Force Base, 50 miles south of Boise, plays host to the Mission Employment phase of the GAF's Tornado Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (FWIC). Together with assets from Mountain Home’s 366th Fighter Wing (FW) and other local units, the Germans take part in large-force missions on the Mountain Home Range Complex. In 2008, Mission Employment, or "ME," ran from October 15th to 31st.
The GAF’s ME exercise is modeled on the US Air Force Weapons School’s version – indeed, prior to 2005 the GAF took part in the USAFWS’s twice-yearly ME at Nellis AFB. ME missions simulate "real world" mixed-force fighter operations in all their complexity. The FWIC students fly their Tornados as one component of a strike package, and are opposed by realistic air and ground threats. The GAF invites USAF, US Navy, and National Guard units to take part in ME, paying for their operating expenses like fuel and accommodations.
ME 2008 participants deployed to Mountain Home included eight Tornados from the German Air Force Flying Training Centre (GAFFTC) at Holloman AFB, New Mexico; F-15Cs and F-15Es from the 366th FW; F-15Es from Seymour Johnson AFB, SC; T-38s from Sheppard AFB, TX; and EA-6Bs from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, WA. Idaho National Guard A-10s and AH-64s from Boise, KC-135s, B-52s, and B-1s flew homestation sorties. An E-3A Sentry from the NATO Airborne Early Warning Force operated from Boise to keep track of everyone.
Rheinland Rhino’s Last Rhomp?
ME 2008 had one other, noteworthy participant: six F-4F ICE Phantoms from
Jagdgeschwader 71, the GAF's last F-4 fighter wing. This was the first appearance by German Phantoms in the United States since 2004, and with the clock running down to the Phantom’s 2012 withdrawal from GAF service, it is likely to be their last.
"We flew over the Atlantic, seven hours and 30 minutes, we stopped in Bangor, Maine overnight, and then we flew five hours and 30 minutes to get here. It was a total 13 hours flying time, and 15 times air refueling," explained Colonel Chris Badia, JG 71’s Wing Commander. A USAF KC-10A Extender "dragged" the F-4s from Wittmundhafen, Germany to Mountain Home, while a GAF Airbus A310 brought 130 support personnel.
The six "Rhinos" deployed to Idaho included one painted blue and gold to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Phantom’s first flight and 35 years of F-4 fighter operations by the GAF. The very first German F-4F, 37+01, was another.
The F-4s were present at ME solely to support the Tornado FWIC and pursue JG 71’s unit training objectives – with the type's retirement approaching, there is no longer an F-4 weapons school. According to Col Badia, "One of the main reasons we come here is for the chance to do large-scale training. Within Europe, large-scale exercises like this one are very rare." Moreover, although their aircraft may be 50 years old, the Phantom crews are the keepers of the GAF’s air-to-air expertise while Germany’s other fighter wings get up to speed on the new Eurofighter. "It’s very important for us to participate in exercises like this, to maintain our air-to-air capability and experience and knowledge. We have a mix of senior crews and junior crews here, but the main emphasis for me is that the junior crews will pick up things and take that knowledge back home with them."
Mission Employment
First and foremost, though, ME is the completion exercise for the Tornado instructors-in-training. The FWIC students, already experienced GAF airmen, have spent five months at Holloman becoming experts in all the Tornado’s capabilities and missions. ME is their "final exam," drawing on everything they have learned.
ME involves five "role" missions, each emphasizing a different Tornado mission such as interdiction or suppression of air defenses (SEAD). Each "role" is planned and led by the FWIC students, assisted by their GAFFTC instructors. "They get a task in the Air Tasking Order (ATO), they are told what they have to do, and one of the students will take control and manage the whole mission," said Lt Col Hans Weber, the commander of GAFFTC’s Training Group. The students spend a full day in planning, gathering intelligence on targets and threats, deciding on tactics, and coordinating with other participants. They fly the mission the next morning, then spend the afternoon in debriefs with the instructors and other aircrew to review what worked and what did not.
The role missions, each involving more than 30 aircraft, are flow over Mountain Home’s Saylor Creek and Juniper Butte no-drop ranges and the Grasmere electronic combat site. Scenarios for the Tornados and other strike aircraft in 2008 included ground-assisted air interdiction, with German Army forward air controllers and USAF Tactical Air Control Parties designating high-value targets for aircraft to hit with laser-guided bombs; attacks on vehicle convoys and industrial facilities; and lethal SEAD using HARM missiles. The aircraft were opposed by electronic combat threats operated by the Idaho Air National Guard’s 266th Range Squadron, including GPS jamming, threat emitters, and simulated air defenses.
On the air-to-air side, the F-4s and F-15Cs flew both as Blue air, providing offensive counter-air support for strike aircraft and high-value asset attach escort for the tankers and AWACS, as and Red air, simulating Russian-built aircraft to intercept and harrass the Blue forces.
The 2008 FWIC had four students, two pilots and two WSOs. Mission employment may seem like a huge effort and expense to train just four aircrew, but they are not the only beneficiaries. Their GAFFTC instructors, who fly alongside the students on the role missions, maintain their proficiency. By taking part in a rare large-force training opportunity, other participating units fulfill some of their own training requirements. Support personnel gain experience in deploying to new base and sharing it with other assets, just as they would do in actual coalition operations.
Continuation Training
Between the role missions, continuation training (CT) missions kept the participating aircraft and the range complex busy. "For us to come to North America only to fly five missions, the training outcome would be too low, "explained Col Badia. "So we participate in all the continuation training missions. We fly twice a day, we fly two waves a day."
Extra aircrews were brought from Germany to the US for the CT flying, to wring as much value as possible from the training opportunities ME 2008 offered. JG 71 brought 14 crews to Mountain Home, while Tornado crews from operational wings flew the GAFFTC aircraft.
The CT missions were planned at Mountain Home by the units deployed or based there, to ensure that everybody’s training needs were addressed. On a typical "CT day" – the planning day between ME roles – a small mixed-force mission might be flown in the morning by the Tornados, F-4s, F-15s, and EA-6Bs. In the afternoon, the F-4s would launch for dissimilar air combat training against T-38s.
All participants, not just the Germans, found ME 2008 to be valuable experience. "The GAF is a highly-capable combat force, and it was a fantastic training opportunity for our fighters to fly with and against them," said Maj Sean McLay, an F-15C pilot from Mountain Home’s 390th Fighter Squadron. "Training with such a formidable and tactically proficient service as the GAF only makes our own fighter employment better."
That the GAF continues to hold an ME exercise, even as defense budgets are strained and the German Tornado fleet shrinks, is a measure of how important this phase of the fighter weapons instructor course is. ME training is one of the GAF’s best ways to ensure readiness – the nation does not want the first time the "roles" are flown to be in a real combat situation!
Acknowledgements
Thanks to SSgt Jasmine Reif and the staff of the 366th Fighter Wing’s Public Affairs office for supporting Fence Check’s visit to Mountain Home. Special thanks to MSgt Rob Tabor of the 60th Air Mobility Wing, FC’s own "10Boomer," for sharing his photos from the F-4’s return flight to Germany – Rob’s last TDY before he retires from the USAF this year.
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