Weapons load crew members from the 61st Aircraft Maintenance Unit, 309th AMU, 310th AMU, and the 425th compete during the 4th quarter weapon’s loading competition Dec. 18 at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. This quarter featured the first time the F-35 was used in the competition against the F-16 Fighting Falcon at Luke. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Grace Lee)
This marked the first weapons release by F-35s assigned to the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base.
“Yesterday we were able to execute one of the primary missions of this multi-role fighter and successfully employ air to ground weapons,” said Lt. Col. Gregory Frana, 62nd Fighter Squadron commander. “As we execute the mission of training the world’s greatest F-35 pilots it is critical we make our training as realistic as possible.”
Maj. Matthew Strongin, 62nd Fighter Squadron weapons chief, was one of two pilots who employed the GBU-12s at the range.
“The training focus at Luke has shifted,” Strongin said. “The previous years centered on building instructor pilot cadre. We are now focused on producing combat-capable warfighters for the front-line fighter squadrons in the Air Force and our partner nations. Dropping full-scale munitions are a significant step forward for Luke’s instructors and students.”
This new capacity gives all of Luke’s F-35 instructor and student pilots an opportunity to experience realistic training.
“All of our instructor pilots will have the opportunity in the coming weeks to experience weapons employment from the aircraft,” Strongin said. “Also, every graduate will experience dropping a 500-pound bomb before leaving here.”
Luke celebrated the two-year anniversary of receiving the F-35 one day before the weapon’s drop.
“Two short years ago we hadn’t flown a single F-35 sortie here,” Frana said. “Now we’ve flown more than 4,000 sorties, trained pilots from the U.S., Australia, Italy, and Norway and are executing training for the software that will provide the IOC for the U.S.”
This mission follows the Feb. 25 employment of laser-guided bombs by combat-coded F-35As from the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, and the March 3 employment from the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida.
The 56th FW serves as the primary training facility for the F-35A, training USAF pilots as well as pilots from our partner nations.
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