Forum: General

I was wondering with the conflicts going on for the last 15+ years, there has to be a few viper drivers with lots of combat hours, in Desert Storm depending on the distance and time on station, OSW, ONW, since in Allied Force the media of a mission was like 4.4 hrs. (According to Combat Aircraft mag), and OEF and OIF, I've read about 5+ hours mission, how many combat hours can a pilot get.

Probably there are a few IAF Pilots with their share of combat time in the F-16, and NATO Allies during Allied Force and OEF.

Oh just in case this info is not sensitive, I don't want to have people knocking on my door late at night asking questions.

Cheers mates.

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JochemP wrote:

[...] (According to Combat Aircraft mag), and OEF and OIF, I've read about 5+ hours mission, [...]

Sorry, but at least in case of F-16 OEF missions please note the following from my topic <a href="http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-4399.html">Operation Enduring Freedom (F-16 Combat History)</a>

Very Long Distances

On their route from Kuwait to Afghanistan the F-16s flew along the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf), over the Gulf of Oman, and over the north-western Arabian Sea. After crossing western Pakistan, the aircraft penetrated into Afghan airspace. An F-16 OEF combat mission typically lasted for about ten to twelve hours, not including briefing and debriefing. It took over three hours to get to the theatre. Once there, the pilots spent about three to five hours over Afghanistan. The flight back to Kuwait lasted another three-plus hours. In other words, each sortie would be similar to flying from Los Angeles to New York, going into a holding pattern for three to five hours, then flying back to LA.

Please note: The same time schedule is also related to F-16s which operated out of Al Udeid AB, Qatar, and to F-15E Strike Eagle units which also operated out of Ahmed Al Jaber AB, Kuwait, during OIF´s main combat phase.

Thanks J.J. For sharing your knowledge, lots of OEF combat flying time (12 hrs), VERY LONG DISTANCES, Briefing and debriefing is accounted for, too right?

According to combat Aircraft magazine I was referring to the article on Allied Force Balkan Debrief N.1 on issue April 2000. (not on OEF and OIF, sorry my mistake) about Vipers flying from Aviano, where F-16's acounted for 4,425 combat missions, wich represented 53.7 percent of the total flown, the Vipers logged 20,732.3 flight hours, an average of 4.7 hours per mission. Me, (been a numbers freak hehe) dug in a little and this is what I found on Allied Force and combat hours.

Portugal's Vipers stationed on Aviano: logged 107 combat missions (469.4 combat hours, for an average mission lenght of 4.4 hrs.

In all more than 100 F-16's operated from aviano under the 31st AEF, which logged 8,241 combat missions (37,886 combat hrs for all types of aircraft).
The vipers had their share as I mentioned above, the Canadians CF-188 Hornets accounted for 522 combat missions (1,873 hrs). The NAVY and USMC Prowlers got 671 combat missions (2997.4 hrs.) 377 missions (1,713.4 hrs) each. The Strike Eagles from Lakenheath got 4,059.1 flight hours (mission average of 3.75 hrs.). The F-117 forward deployed to Aviano flew 337 missions (942.1 combat flight hours) average 2.8 hours per sortie.

No such luck with RNlAF, BAF, RDAF, RNoAF info regarding Allied Force.

Lots of combat time for Viper Drivers! (and this is just Allied Force mates).

Finally got some info about this.

Pilot reaches 1,000 combat hours

1000 combat hrs, That's a lot of office time

Forum: General

Viper Pilot with most Combat Hours.