F-15 fighters' wings clipped a 2nd time

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Hawaii's F-15 Eagle fighters have been grounded for a second time this month because of ongoing Air Force concern over structural components in a Missouri Air National Guard jet that crashed on Nov. 2.

The Air Force yesterday said it had directed a fleetwide reinspection of all F-15 A through D model aircraft.

The grounding affects more than 450 of the aircraft worldwide.

The Hawai'i Air National Guard has 18 of the twin-tail fighters, which serve in a homeland defense role for the state. The aircraft also are available for worldwide taskings.

In the interim, Hawai'i has been covered by F-16 Fighting Falcons from the Minnesota Air National Guard, said Capt. Jeff Hickman, a Hawai'i National Guard spokesman.

"As soon as the grounding occurred on (Nov. 3), they started the process to find a replacement aircraft," Hickman said.

Because of security reasons, Hickman couldn't say how many F-16s are in Hawai'i from Minnesota's 148th Fighter Wing though he did say there are enough.

The aircraft are expected to remain in Hawai'i until the F-15s are flying again.

The Air Force last week returned nearly 700 F-15 fighter jets to service after the Nov. 2 crash in Missouri led to a grounding of the fleet.

A newer version, the F-15E Strike Eagle, continues to fly.

Hawai'i has A, B, and C models that are on average 25 years old, officials said.

The latest stand-down follows Nov. 27 findings from the investigation of the Nov. 2 crash.

A 10-year veteran of the Missouri Air National Guard ejected from an F-15C when it crashed in rural Dent County, Mo., on private property surrounded by national forest.

The pilot suffered a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm and minor cuts.

The single-seat plane, a 1980 model worth $40 million, was assigned to the 131st Fighter Wing at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Metallurgical analysis of the crashed aircraft drew attention to the upper longerons near the canopy.

The Air Force said the longerons, which are major structural components that run the length of the aircraft on its side, appeared to have cracked and failed.

Although the longeron area was covered under the first inspection period, technical experts are now recommending a specific inspection technique for the suspect area, the Air Force said.

Capt. Kristy Miller, a Pacific Air Forces spokeswoman, said the stand-down will remain in effect pending the completion of the required inspections and repairs.

"Currently there is no exact length of time associated with these inspections," she said.

"Previous inspections have taken up to 15 hours per aircraft to complete."

In addition to the Hickam aircraft, Pacific Air Forces has 27 F-15 C and D models at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, and 57 C and D model F-15s at Kadena Air Force Base in Japan.

The F-15s in Hawai'i were deployed to Iraq in 2000 for no-fly-zone duty and patrolled the skies above Honolulu after the 9/11 attacks.

The aircraft will be replaced by F-22A Raptors with stealth technology starting in 2011.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/ ... 018/NEWS08

187th Fighter Wing members called to duty

By Jenn Rowell

An F-15 fighter jet crash earlier this month has members of the 187th Fighter Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard on alert, flying F-16s in New Orleans.

The 187th was notified just after Veterans Day that its planes and pilots were needed in New Orleans to stand in for F-15s, which were grounded following the crash. Four planes, six pilots and 40 maintenance personnel were in place within 36 hours, said Col. John Currenti, the 187th's operations group commander.

The F-15s flown by the 159th Fighter Wing of the Louisiana Air National Guard were on alert, protecting the Gulf of Mexico. Since those operations can't be suspended, Montgomery's unit was called.

Personnel from the Montgomery wing have been rotating through New Orleans so the same people aren't constantly on alert, but the entire unit is expected home at the end of next week, when another unit will take over, Currenti said.

But that might not be their final visit to the Crescent City. Depending on how long the F-15s are grounded, the 187th could return to New Orleans.

Since F-16 units are trained primarily for air-to-ground operations, such as bombing runs, while F-15s are designed primarily for air-to-air missions, such as dogfights, the crews in New Orleans are drilling daily, Currenti said.

And "daily" is no exaggeration.

In New Orleans, they're on alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During alerts, planes are loaded with live missiles and are ready to go at all times so that pilots can get in the cockpit, perform pre-flight checks and start to taxi in about 90 seconds.

"Basically we have to be able to respond within minutes to be airborne," Currenti said.

While on alert, drills can come at any time -- sometimes in the middle of the night -- and with no advance notice. Once Currenti said he was in the shower when an alert was called. He made it from the shower to the cockpit in five minutes, he said, adding that pilots and crews train so that they can be airborne within 10 minutes of being called.

Air Force units have always been on alert to protect American airspace, but more extensively since Sept. 11, 2001.

The 187th was on alert in the days following Sept. 11 and sent units to Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., where they stayed on alert for a year. Over the summer, members of the 187th were sent to Langley AFB, Va., to augment security while that base was deploying units, Currenti said.

In New Orleans, Air National Guard units cover most of the Gulf of Mexico. Units in Jacksonville, Fla., are also on alert and monitor parts of the Gulf.

If an unauthorized or unidentified aircraft comes into American airspace, units on alert are scrambled and sent to intercept it. Currenti said it's usually a plane that isn't communicating with air traffic controllers -- a plane that could be used to run drugs or perform other illegal activities.

The scrambled aircraft are used to get a visual of the plane and tail numbers when available to identify the plane. At that point, the scrambled units are usually able to go back to base, but sometimes will try to communicate with the plane or follow it to notify local law enforcement about where it lands, Currenti said. In rare situations, scrambled units can shoot down a plane.

"Basically our job is to identify any aircraft that they can't identify by radar," Currenti said.

Most pilots know the Air Force's role, so being on alert is usually quiet other than drills, Currenti said.

The order to ground F-15s came after an investigation of an F-15C crash in Missouri revealed a major structural flaw in four of the Air Force's five F-15 models. The newest "E" model has been cleared to fly since it doesn't have the structural problem found in the older "A" through "D" models.

The Air Force has about 670 F-15s in its inventory and the early models have been operational since the late 1970s. The plane that crashed was built in 1980. The older models will be phased out and replaced with F-22s, according to the Air Force.

Last week, Gen. John D.W. Corley, commander of Air Combat Command, cleared the F-15s to fly after each plane was inspected. But, on Tuesday, Corley grounded the "A" through "D" models indefinitely.

Source: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/app ... 00321/1001

Vermont Air National Guard to provide emergency, security service

Associated Press - December 1, 2007 3:05 PM ET

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Air National Guard has a new mission.

It will provide security and emergency response in the Northeast. The Air Guard was assigned the mission after the U.S. Air Force's decided to ground all of its F-15 fighter jets.

The F-15s will be inspected following an investigation into a Missouri Air National Guard plane crash Nov. 2 that found defects in the aircraft's fuselage.

The Vermont Air Guard, which flies F-16s, will continue the 24-hour-a-day mission after the inspections while the F-15s are moved from Cape Cod to another base in western Massachusetts.

The transition could take a year or longer.

Source: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7436702&nav=4QcS

183rd filling in - F-16s to sub for Louisiana’s grounded F-15s

By JOHN REYNOLDS
STAFF WRITER
Published Friday, December 07, 2007

About 50 members of the Springfield-based 183rd Fighter Wing of the Illinois National Guard are being sent to New Orleans to fill in for a Louisiana squadron whose planes have been grounded.

The Louisiana squadron flies the F-15 Eagle, but several models of that plane were grounded after a crash in Missouri on Nov. 2. Since then, units such as the 183rd, which fly the F-16 Falcon, have been filling in for the F-15 squadrons, said Capt. Sonja Gurski, spokeswoman for the 183rd.

The 183rd pilots will be flying Air Sovereignty Alert missions, which are common when an unidentified ship or plane approaches the U.S. coastline, Gurski said.

The 50 or so 183rd members included pilots and mechanics. Four of the unit’s jets also were sent.

The Illinois Guard members left Springfield earlier this week and will be operating out of Naval Air Station New Orleans for about 30 days or longer. The 183rd is relieving the 187th Fighter Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard, which has been serving as a fill-in since mid-November.

Gurski said the 183rd began preparing for the deployment when the F-15s were grounded.

Other F-16 units from Minnesota have been deployed to Hawaii, and units in Vermont are on alert on the Northeast coast.

The pilot of the F-15 that crashed Nov. 2 in central Missouri was able to eject from the aircraft. He suffered a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm and minor cuts.

The Air Force described the grounding as precautionary, but said preliminary findings indicated the F-15 might have suffered structural failure.

In May, an Indiana Air National Guard F-15 crashed near the Indiana-Illinois state line. The pilot was able to safely eject.

The F-15 is a twin-engine air-superiority fighter that went into service in 1974. It was the first U.S. jet fighter to have engine thrust greater than the normal weight of the aircraft.

The F-16 is a single-engine fighter used for air-to-air combat and ground attack. The planes flown by the 183rd are about 20 years old.

Source: http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/21414.asp

March Air Reserve base unit expands homeland security role

By JOE VARGO
The Press-Enterprise
10:00 PM PST on Friday, December 28, 2007

The grounding of hundreds of F-15 fighters means a California National Guard unit with planes and pilots stationed at March Air Reserve Base is now responsible for air security along the entire West Coast.

The officer in charge of the 144th Fighter Wing detachment at March said his pilots, ground crew members and support staff are "enthusiastic and honored" to answer the challenge.

"We view this as a zero-failure mission," said Lt. Col. John Jensen. "We don't get second chances. We are very proud to be trusted with this mission."

The detachment and the remainder of the 144th, which is headquartered in Fresno, flies F-16 Falcons, a fighter that went into production 35 years ago that can be configured with bombs, rockets and air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.

Its versatility makes it a prized airplane in Iraq.

The Falcons took center stage after the Nov. 2 crash of an F-15 Eagle in Missouri and the subsequent grounding of the 450 Eagles, including those assigned to fly homeland security missions from Portland International Airport in Oregon. To meet that challenge, a detachment of F-16s, pilots and support staff was transferred to Portland from Fresno.

The Air Force has given no timetable for returning the F-15s to duty.

Wing officers would not discuss specifics about the strength of the Portland detachment. The detachment at March usually numbers two or three Falcons, which sit on alert.

The bulk of the 144th's Falcons, which typically number about 15, remain in Fresno.

With the added mission, the 144th now provides homeland security along the entire West Coast, protecting 46 million people, nuclear power plants, the Navy fleet in San Diego and the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco and Seattle.

That area encompasses more than 300,000 square miles and marks the first time a single fighter wing has assumed responsibility for an entire coast.

A Long History

The California Air National Guard has been flying homeland security missions since the early 1950s, said Col. Gary Taylor, operations group manager for the 144th. The biggest challenge for the Portland mission involved shipping spare parts and about 15 "maintainers" -- mechanics, aviation specialists and logistics experts -- to Oregon.

The Portland F-16s are based at a civilian airport, just like in Fresno, and fly combat patrols that put them in contact with their Canadian air force colleagues.

"We don't look at this mission as anything unusual," Taylor said. "For us, it's business as usual. This is what we train for."

In addition to their homeland security experience, many pilots and maintenance personnel have significant combat experience in Iraq, Taylor said.

The F-16, which is set for phase out by 2012, is no longer manufactured for the U.S. military, and the 144th has not been given replacement planes.

Retired Air Force Col. Bill Gavitt, a member of Riverside's Military Affairs Committee and a longtime March supporter, said he believes the current crisis means the F-16's life will be extended.

"This situation is really shocking," Gavitt said. "I would look for the F-16 to have a long extension of its mission. They don't have a backup."

Eventually the F-16 will be replaced by the F-22 Raptor, but that transition will take years.

On Alert

Pilots at March and elsewhere typically spend four- or five-day shifts hunkered down in their alert facility, which serves as their home, office, gym and study hall while they are on duty. The site is manned around-the-clock, holidays included. When the warning alarm blares, two pilots run to their airplanes, fire up the jet engines and prepare to launch. They never know what they might encounter on a scramble -- a drug runner, a private jet in trouble or a passenger airliner transmitting a hijack warning.

Like most of their missions, specifics about individual scrambles don't become public until days, weeks or months later.

There have been several high-profile intercepts.

Source: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... 5ed78.html

Sleep Well Tonight, Your National Guard is Awake

by Christopher Wright

We sure hope so as they are now our major air defense for the country!

An issue or two before this, I expressed concern about our massively stretched military and reserves in two foreign wars, threatening a third and what about the ability to protect our home front, to protect America?

Whether natural disaster or enemy attack, out troops, our reserves and our National Guard are off doing repeated 15 month tours in Iraq, the ground units often have to leave their equipment for the next relief company that comes in and vehicles are being shred faster than they can be made.

An unexpected example of the effects on the American population came suddenly to light the past few weeks. The bulldog of American air defenses is the F-15 attack fighter. It is the main plane at all of our ‘alert’ sites in the U.S. - the ones that have to respond at a moments notice. Since November, all the F-15’s world-wide have been grounded ‘indefinitely’ due to severe structural problems caused by the stressors of this machines capabilities and several of them simply disintegrating in mid flight.

The F-15 isn’t the only plane capable of protecting America, there are the F-16’s and the F-22’s. The problem being that almost all the F-16’s are based and being used in Iraq and there aren’t enough F-22’s around yet and few squadrons have been fully trained in them.

The result? Canadian CF-18 Hornets have been covering the airspace over Alaska. The Vermont Air National Guard has been covering the entire Northeast of the country. The Minnesota Air National Guard is covering Hawaii with the Illinois Air National Guard filling in. The California Air National Guard is covering California, Oregon, Washington and parts of Arizona and Nevada.

While the F-16’s that most of the Air National Guard units use are excellent fighter aircraft, their range is about 1/3 of the F-15’s. This means they can intercept threats to the U.S. at about 350 miles (175 miles round trip) whereas the F-15’s were able to run about 1100 miles round trip to meet threats further out and more time for assessment and response.

Just another little thing to worry about – thank heaven we have a Defense president whose hobby is threatening and/or doing war around the planet and has our forces stretched to around 300 foreign bases in some 110 countries. Heaven forbid that we might just prefer them here

Source: http://www.opednews.com:80/articles/ope ... ht_2c_.htm

Oklahoma Air National Guard has a new security mission

Associated Press - December 29, 2007 10:05 AM ET

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - The Oklahoma Air National Guard has received a new mission that will take its pilots and maintenance personnel to Texas.

Starting February 1st, the Oklahoma Guard will begin providing homeland security air defense as part of the national Air Sovereignty Alert mission for an area between Tucson, Arizona, and New Orleans.

The area will include Oklahoma and much of Texas.

Colonel William Hadaway, the commander of the Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing, says 30 F-16 fighter pilots and 30 maintenance personnel are being trained at Ellington Field in Houston in preparation for the mission.

He says the crews will operate out of Ellington Field when their new mission begins, but will remain part of the Oklahoma Guard.

Two pilots at a time will work weekly rotational shifts, spending a 4-day work week at Ellington Field before being replaced. Maintenance personnel will be permanently stationed in Texas.

Source: http://www.kswo.com/global/story.asp?s=7555032

Guard to staff alert base

By MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
12/29/2007

The Oklahoma Air National Guard will take on a new mission Feb. 1 when it begins providing homeland security air defense for a sizable chunk of the Southwest.

Col. William Hadaway, commander of the Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing, said Friday that 30 of his F-16 pilots, along with 30 maintenance personnel, are undergoing training at Ellington Field in Houston in preparation for the mission.

He said the Tulsa-based crews will be operating out of Ellington Field as part of the national Air Sovereignty Alert mission, providing air defense for a large swath between Tucson, Ariz., and New Orleans.

The Air Sovereignty Alert mission is designed to thwart any terrorist threat to the skies over the nation, in particular hijacked planes as seen in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

More than a dozen of these types of "alert" bases are spread out across the country.

Although the Tulsa-based crews will be operating out of Texas, they still will be part of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, Hadaway said.

Two pilots at a time will work out of Texas in weekly rotational shifts, he said. They will head to Ellington for a four-day work week, then return to Oklahoma, allowing two others to rotate into service.

The maintenance personnel, however, will remain permanently in Texas, Hadaway said.

The commander said that while at Ellington Field, the Oklahoma pilots will be living in a small building alongside the runway so they can scramble into the sky within five minutes of receiving an alert.

Hadaway said the Oklahoma crews will provide protection for much of Texas, northward into Oklahoma, and points east and west.

Air Force alert bases also will be at Tucson and New Orleans, "and if you look at the area between those two, you'll see the area we'll be covering," Hadaway said.

He said other alert bases will be located in Massachusetts, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Oregon, Minnesota, and other states.

Meanwhile, the Air Force has run into an operational problem at many of the alert bases.

The problem arose after the Air Force grounded about 450 of its F-15 fighter jets for suspected structural defects.

Hundreds of those planes are used at many of the alert bases, so the Air Force is calling on neighboring states and Air National Guards to pitch in with their F-16 fighters to keep the skies protected.

Oklahoma, however, will not be aiding that effort, Hadaway said.

"Normally, we would step up to it. But we're starting a whole new mission, training for a new unit," he said.

"That's why we didn't volunteer" to help the Air Force, Hadaway said.

Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article. ... spanc33771

[...] Oklahoma, however, will not be aiding that effort, Hadaway said.

"Normally, we would step up to it. But we're starting a whole new mission, training for a new unit," he said. [...]

Sleep Well Tonight, Your National Guard is Awake

by Christopher Wright

We sure hope so as they are now our major air defense for the country!

An issue or two before this, I expressed concern about our massively stretched military and reserves in two foreign wars, threatening a third and what about the ability to protect our home front, to protect America?

Whether natural disaster or enemy attack, out troops, our reserves and our National Guard are off doing repeated 15 month tours in Iraq,...

Is that really non-related to grounded F-15s?