Air Force, Navy Take To Skies with F-22 Raptors, F-18 Hornets

The following is a release from Airman 1st Class Kyle Johnson, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Public Affairs:

F-22 Raptors from the 90th Fighter Squadron duked it out with F-18 Hornets from Navy Strike Fighter Squadron 15 to wrest as much training experience from each other Sept. 14-25.

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The Hornets, based in Naval Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Va., flew with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Raptors as part of dissimilar air-combat training, in which fundamentally different airframes train with each other in warzone simulations.

When flying against the Raptors, the Hornets were known as “red air,” a term used for pilots simulating enemy aircraft for training purposes, while “blue air” is used for the pilots who are the recipients of the training.

Through this, pilots on both sides were able to gain experience with combat operations against an enemy with different training and a different airframe.

“There are different tactics for different airframes,” said Navy Lt. Michael Koch, a VFA-15 pilot. “It is good to work against someone using a different tactic and potentially a different game plan to see where your strengths compare to theirs and your weaknesses to theirs.”

With six Hornets and about half their maintainer …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life