Forum: Drones

6/11/2007 - EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AFPN) -- An F-15 Eagle and an F-16 Fighting Falcon were involved in a midair collision over the Pacific Alaska Range Complex at 11:23 a.m. June 11. Both aircraft were participating in a training mission.

The F-15, assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Va., crashed in a rural area. The pilot ejected safely and was transported to Bassett Army Community Hospital at Fort Wainwright for evaluation.

Emergency response teams responded to the incident. Although damaged, the F-16, assigned to the 64th Aggressor Squadron, Nellis AFB, Nev., was able to return to Eielson safely. The pilot was uninjured.

A board of officers will investigate the incident. Additional details will be provided as soon as they become available.

(Courtesy of the 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs)

The bidding war amongst the F-15 community is over $32,000 for who will be the first to smoke a QF-16 Pork Falcon...

Let the discussion begin...

A PR spokesperson for the WEG at Tyndall today announced radical changes to the WSEP profiles flown during Combat Archer:

“In an effort to add realism to Combat Archer scenarios and more closely align the pilot’s mindset with potential real world combat events and concerns, the Weapons Evaluation Group has been given the go ahead to arm QF-16 drones with a single defensive air-to-air weapon, either an AIM-9 or an AIM-120 depending on the QF block.”

Weapon employment will be controlled remotely by the drone pilot and may be initiated anytime after both the verbal “clear to maneuver” and “clear to fire” authorizations.

The WEG spokesperson stated: “With this option in place we will truly get a clearer picture of not only weapon effectiveness, but also pilot capability and aggressiveness and countermeasures usage. Put in doubt will be the on going issue of who really is the “smoker” and who then becomes the “smokee”.

Feedback from fighter pilots and particularly the Eagle community has been mixed.

A spokesperson for the first F-15 unit scheduled to deploy to Tyndall for this program stated: “This is like giving the rifles to the deer during hunting season. We’re still evaluating our planned level of participation in this type of leading edge training.”

An F-15 pilot stated: “Under these circumstances, it’s possible we’ll see more “blow thru” tactics utilized.

Another F-15 pilot stated: “With the high potential for unfavorable results, I would assume we will always engage the drone with numerical superiority.”

Guard F-15 pilot comments have run the gamut from “I’m transferring to C-130’s” to “They don’t pay me enough for this”.

An A-10 pilot was quoted as saying: “Bring it on.”

The bidding pool on the first Pork Falcon kill has now dropped below the $100 level.

The WEG spokesperson further added: “Painting an aircraft silhouette on a drone that recovers successfully will be discouraged however.”