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Edwards, Air National Guard combine efforts to upgrade F-16

  • Published
  • By Christopher Ball
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  While many Airmen were dem­onstrating their ability to survive and operate in a hostile environ­ment at Camp Corum during the recent Operational Readiness Exercise, a group of testers here were busy demonstrating another facet of the Air Force Flight Test Center’s wartime mission.

Members of the 416th Flight Test Squadron worked closely with the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center in Tucson, Ariz., to con­duct accelerated developmental testing of the Block 30 F-16 Soft­ware Capability Upgrade 6 (SCU-6). Block 30 F-16 aircraft are used by Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and active Air Force units. The SCU-6 upgrade will improve many aspects of the aircraft’s warfighting capabili­ties, to include its survivability, weapons capacity and weapons’ effectiveness.

“Basically, the payload of Joint Directed Attack Munition that the aircraft can carry has been dou­bled,” said Maj. John Kruzinaus­kas, chief of warfighter integration capability for the Air National Guard. “We’ve also upgraded to the AIM-9X dynamic launch zone, enabling more accurate and effective engagements, and more stand-off range.”

According to Steve Salas, the acting test acceleration project manager, the ORE test accelera­tion allowed the team to sharpen its business processes, testing and planning skills as well as obtain an increased resource priority for the program.

“All the time and effort ex­pended on this exercise allows us to hone our skills for real-world re­quirements,” Mr. Salas said. Dur­ing a normal program, an execu­tion rate of eight sorties per month is the norm; however, the AATC deployment portion of SCU-6 test­ing consisted of approximately 20 sorties in eight days.

“Many team members put in 12-hour work days to meet the aggressive flying schedule, overall everything went extremely well” said Mr. Salas.

First Lt. John Whichelow, the deputy program manager, said “There was a lot of teamwork and cooperation between the Edwards and Tucson personnel to make this happen.”

Flights are only a portion of the test planning. Capt. Michael Dostie, an operations engineer with the 416th FLTS, was responsible for looking at the test objectives, determining the resources needed and putting together the flight schedule. “Resources included ranges, control rooms, frequency allocations, weapons requirements and aircrews,” he said.

To support the test, a group of more than 24 maintainers and en­gineers from the AATC, along with two aircraft, deployed to Edwards, Mr. Salas said.

Major Kruzinauskas empha­sized that the Block 30 F-16, al­though primarily used by the Guard and Reserve, is not just a Guard jet. “We support the ‘Whole Air Force’ concept. These aircraft are out there flying Homeland Defense, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom,” Major Kruzinauskas said.