Report and photos by Robbie van Disseldorp (This article first appeared in issue 33 of Spotter Magazine)
In early August 2021, aviation enthusiasts across Europe noticed a large group of 31st Fighter Wing (FW) F-16s heading to RAF Mildenhall, UK. Speculation erupted as to where these Vipers were heading. Was it for GREEN FLAG at Nellis AFB, NV? Perhaps Eielson AFB, AK for RED FLAG-ALASKA? Eventually, all speculation came to an end when it became clear that the 510th Fighter Squadron (FS) ‘Buzzards’ were heading to Hill AFB in Utah to participate in WSEP-West, also known as Combat Archer/Hammer.
WSEP WEST
WSEP-West is one of two major parts of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Weapons Systems Evaluation Program (WSEP). It is a two-week evaluation hosted by the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron (FWS) that takes place four times annually at Hill AFB. WSEP-West consists of two parts: Combat Archer, the air-to-air weapons system evaluation, and Combat Hammer, which evaluates air-to-surface weapons employment. Evaluators from the 53d Wing WSEP team assess the effectiveness, maintainability, and accuracy of the weapons employed by the participants throughout both events. On the flight line, this means that bombs are built and loaded under the watchful eye of the evaluators. Maintenance crews are graded on their efforts to keep the aircraft combat-ready and aircrew who deploy the weapons are evaluated on precision and accuracy.
The 510th FS prides itself on being a premier air-to-surface strike unit. To remain ready for that role, the Buzzard staff recognizes the need for live weapons training. The opportunities to employ live weapons near their home-base of Aviano AB, Italy are significantly limited, however. There are virtually no ranges in Italy and the Buzzards only have access to two limited ranges in Croatia and Slovenia. Lt. Col. Rolf ‘Nuke’ Tellefsen, 510th FS Director of Operations, was quick to act when he found out about an opening for WSEP-West. In February 2021, the decision to attend was made and Buzzards Project Coordinator and Fighter Pilot, Capt. ‘Miami’ Tise was tasked with planning the deployment. He says, "WSEP-West utilizes a bare-base support concept, wherein the equipment that we bring from Aviano is all that can be utilized during the evaluation. Therefore, important preparation begins prior to departure from Aviano to ensure we have the capacity to build, test, load, mission-plan, and employ all of these unique munitions.”
This edition of WSEP-West took place from 16-27 August 2021. The Buzzards brought a mix of twelve F-16CM and DMs to Hill AFB. The Vipers were a variety of 510th and 555th FS aircraft. Flying them were 32 pilots, including four weapons officers and five instructor pilots. The rest of the group is fairly young and includes several first-assignment pilots. Capt. Tise said, "Working with live weapons is not something our first assignment guys get to do much at home station, so it’s an awesome opportunity for them. We had a lot of first-time shooters out here and everyone’s been learning a ton. "
Whether they admit or not, being able to work with live weapons is always exciting for aircrews. "We try to treat it all the same regardless of whether it’s simulated or live. That way, when we get to the live munitions, it should be transparent. There is definitely an extra focus from the pilot that he or she is actually carrying live munitions. When you are pickling a weapon, something actually falls off the jet, which is different from simulation. That’s one unique thing about this training," said Capt. Tise.
Participating in WSEP-West gave the Buzzards an opportunity to employ an impressive variety of weapons, including the AIM-120, AIM-9M, AIM-9X, CBU-103, AGR-20, GBU-10, 24, 31, 38, AGM-65, and the PGU-27 20mm bullets. The squadron was also offered the rare opportunity to employ three AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM). The JASSM is rarely used during live weapons exercises and most aircrews will only ever get to employ them during actual combat scenarios.
During WSEP-West, the main focus is on the employment of the weapons, not necessarily big-flag exercise type scenarios. Therefore, the majority of the sorties are flown in an uncontested environment. Capt. Tise explains, "They do add some scenarios to different drops, but really it’s about loading the munitions, including maintenance as well, so not just the employment but bringing the whole team together, from loading the weapons on the jet to the coordination and scheduling, and then the actual employment."
On the last day of WSEP-West, the 510th FS received their results and grades. The results of exercises like this provide the Buzzards with up-to-date feedback on sortie and weapon success rates. For Lt. Col. Tellefsen, these grades give him a good snapshot of where the squadron currently stands. He explains, "Our number one objective coming here was to get the opportunity to go through, as a Buzzards team, from the building of the bombs, to the transport and loading of the bombs, the preflight of the bombs, to the pilots employing the weapons and all the realism associated with everything from cradle to grave of employing weapons and assuring that we can get our combat aircraft airborne. We’re trying to provide these guys with this experience, so if and when we do go to combat, it’s not the very first time they’re loading up a live GBU-31 and they already know that they’ve done it. So number one is the experience piece." He continues, "Number two is just from a unit preparedness piece. Yes, it’s an evaluation. There are people grading us all throughout this and you get a snapshot. We think we know where we are. We think we have an idea of our state of readiness and the state of every pilot in our squadron. We think we’re ready to do the job, but now we get a chance to prove it, and we may find little bits and pieces here and there where we may need to spend more time training. From an evaluation standpoint, we think we know where we are, but now we can see if there are areas where we need to focus on and spend some more time and effort."
Airspace
One aspect of WSEP-West that excited the Buzzards pilots is the airspace in Utah. Approximately 80 miles west of Hill AFB is the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). The UTTR offers exercise planners a total of 6,930 km2 of ground space and over 49,000 km2 of air space and provides several different bombing ranges that contain stationary as well as moving ground targets. Just about any type of live weapon in the USAF arsenal can be dropped at the UTTR and the range also has the ability to launch target drones that linger over the range and can be used by aircrews as targets for air-to-air missile launches.
To make life harder for the aircrews, the UTTR contains radio-frequency (RF) emitting threats that simulate various adversary surface-to-air missile systems. These systems have the capability to target the aircraft and simulate engagements. Capt. Tise explains, " Flying in the UTTR is amazing, the altitude, how wide it is, the threat emitters, it allows us to mimic the employment like we would when we are deployed. There are a lot of incredible opportunities out there on that range, like moving targets, etc., things that we really don’t get to see at our home station." Another major advantage of the UTTR is the short transit time between Hill AFB and the range, thus allowing the pilots to spend more time over the training area.
CT Lines
Besides flying a number of Combat Archer/Hammer sorties, the Buzzards are also flying daily continuation training (CT) sorties of their own. During the two weeks of WSEP-West participation, the Buzzards expect to fly about 80 exercise sorties and 80 CT sorties of their own. The normal training sorties mainly consist of operating with the local 388th FW F-35As. Lt. Col. Tellefsen explains, "one of the unique things we have is called Fighter Integration, that 4th- and 5th-gen integration is something that we obviously don’t get to practice back at Aviano. This deployment is an opportunity for us to work some of the tactics in that we can only discuss academically back home." He continues: "when we are flying with F-35s, we look to optimize the ways in which our aircraft interact while airborne to take advantage of our individual strengths. Even with 5th-Gen aircraft, we find ways to complement the capabilities of each airframe." When asked how it is to go up against the F-35 as an aggressor, Tellefsen smiles and says, "difficult."
During the last week of the Buzzards' stay at Hill AFB, the squadron continued with live weapons employment. Lt. Col. Tellefsen says: "In the last week we’ve been putting a little bit of everything together. So far we’ve been employing WSEP-West allocated weapons, but we, as a unit, also get allocated munitions, so we’re loading up our own munitions that we’re allocated in this fiscal year for training. We’re putting everything together because we’re going to have Red air versus Blue air and actually carrying live munitions, fighting our way in to a target and dropping bombs. Now we’re taking everything we learned the last two weeks and combining it."
These integration sorties consist of offensive and defensive counter-air engagements. The Buzzards' F-16s, as well as the local F-35s, are split up into Red and Blue air teams. A-4 Skyhawks and L-159s of civil contractor Draken out of Nellis AFB supplement the Red air team on some occasions. Capt. Tise said, "Two days ago I was a red air. Before the mission, we compared tactics with the local F-35s and really just learned from each other how we execute our separate 4-ship tactics. It was a 14 v 20 scenario, which is definitely a lot more than back home for us. It’s a lot of airplanes in one piece of sky. It creates an admin challenge: how do we safely execute this? And also a tactical challenge, because there are a lot of airplanes we can throw at the good guys, and how do we solve those challenges together?”
Aside from having to cancel some sorties due to bad weather during their first week, the Buzzards can look back on a very successful deployment. Many of the less experienced Buzzard pilots built airmanship by flying in different surroundings. They also came away with valuable live weapons experience. Meanwhile, 510th FS leadership has a good picture of the squadrons' state of readiness in case they are called into action. On Wednesday, 8 September 2021, the Buzzards departed from Hill AFB, but rather than flying back to Aviano AB, the twelve AV-coded F-16s headed south to Nellis AFB (NV) where the Buzzards continued their training and took part in a GREEN FLAG exercise.
