Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing

strike-planning staff needs to be close to its CTAPS terminals, taking in the latest intelligence and targeting data and generating the Air Tasking and Fragmentary Orders that must be finished before the first airplane can be loaded and fueled. Thus, Colonel Scott and the Operations Group staff came up with the 'FAST CONOPS' plan. Four of the 22nd's tankers, loaded with personnel and equipment, fly ahead to make the host site ready to start operations as soon as the combat aircraft arrive. As quickly as possible after an alert order, the first KC-135, known as FAST-1, would fly to the crisis area with a site survey team to evaluate exactly what the wing will need to deploy. Shortly after this, FAST-2 arrives with an Air Operations Center (AOC) team and the WICP (Wing Initial Communications Package) satellite communications equipment aboard. FAST-3 would carry the CI element, with their CTAPS gear set up to work while in flight. Finally, FAST-4 would carry a staff of maintenance personnel and aircrews (in crew rest) to ready the aircraft and fly the first mission when they arrive in the crisis zone. In this way, the wing could fly its first mission within a few hours of arriving at the host airfield.

This capability is vitally important to the wing's planned CONOPS scheme, and could make all the difference in a crisis.

The 22nd ARS is working hard to improve its capabilities to support the wing. Although times are tough, and money for upgrades of support aircraft are short, there are continuing efforts to make the 22nd's aircraft more capable, which include:

• Communications—Provisions are being made to install a UHF satellite communications terminal aboard each of the tankers. This will allow transmission of high-quality intelligence data, images, and teleconferencing to and from the FAST aircraft while in flight.

• Cargo Handling—One of the really big improvements is replacement of the KC-135s' original plywood floors with special fixtures, called Roll On/Roll Off (Ro/Ro) aluminum alloy floors, which will allow them to carry palletized cargo. This will greatly expand the variety of cargo the 22nd's tankers can carry, and help out a bit with the transportation crunch of getting the wing and all its stuff to the operating theater.

• Navigational Systems—A NAVSTAR GPS receiver is being installed to help with navigation and planning, as well as improving the accuracy of the autopilot. This should help in easing the aircrew workload, reducing fatigue on trans-oceanic flights when the 366th deploys.

These improvements will enhance the capabilities of the 22nd, though Lieutenant Colonel Gaughan and the rest of the wing's leadership still have a long wish list. At the top of the list is trading in the KC-135s for bigger, more modern KC-10 tankers, which can both pass and receive fuel in-flight and carry a large load of palletized cargo and personnel. This would allow the 22nd to both deploy and refuel while traveling overseas. Right now, it can only do one at a time. Unfortunately, these aircraft are closely held by the Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB, Illinois. Another item on the wish list is the installation of a refueling receptacle on the squadron's aircraft, a modification known as the 'T-mod,' which would make them into KC-135RTs. Again, though, money is the limiting factor in all of this, and the wing will probably have to make do with what it already has for the next few years, at least.

392nd Electronic Combat Range Squadron

The 392nd Electronic Combat Range Squadron was formed in 1985 to provide realistic electronic range training to the EF-111s of the 366th Wing when it had the standoff jamming mission within the USAF. Today, under its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lynn B. Wheeless, USAF, it runs the facilities at Saylor Creek weapons training range.

366th Logistics Group

Combat units eat up a lot of supplies. Just one mission by the six B-1Bs of the 34th BS would use up 117 tons of bombs and over 148,250 gallons/551,886 liters of jet fuel. That is one mission by just one of the squadrons that might be controlled by the 366th Wing, and it in no way includes food, water, spare parts, black boxes, and all the other supplies that make a modern combat unit work. In high-intensity combat operations, the full 366th would consume several thousand tons of supplies a day, every day. Without a proper flow of supplies, the Gunfighters are just ground targets for some other air force to kill.

Commanded by Colonel Lee Hart, the 366th Logistics Support Group is composed of four squadrons responsible for supply, maintenance, and transportation. Without ground support personnel, there would not be anyone to load the bombs, fuel the planes, turn the wrenches, and move the cargo.

366TH LOGISTICS SUPPORT SQUADRON. Originally known as the 366th Sub Depot when it was formed in November 1942, the 366th Logistics Support Squadron is commanded by Major Louis M. Johnson, Jr. Redesignated in 1992, it has a mission to provide the wing with a steady supply of spare parts, tools, and equipment to help keep the 366th's aircraft in the air. As such, it handles ordering, storing, and distribution of thousands of items that go on or into the wing's airplanes.

366TH MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT SQUADRON. First activated in 1953, the 366th Maintenance and Supply Squadron is commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ward E. Tyler III. Its mission, as you might guess, is to repair, test, and maintain all of the aircraft and other equipment that the wing carries on its books. This is a huge task, partly because the 366th has five different aircraft types, not to mention the variety of computers, generators, ramp service carts, test equipment, etc.

366TH SUPPLY SQUADRON. First stood up in 1953 with the other units of the Logistics Group, the 366th Supply Squadron is currently commanded by Major Jerry W. Pagett. Major Pagett and his team are tasked with maintaining the thousands of inventory items a combat unit like the 366th requires to keep moving. Like any other unit, this covers everything that would be needed by a small town, from food and fuel to soap and toilet paper. One of the big efforts of the folks in this unit is to combine, wherever possible, supply line items, so that the wing has fewer different things to take with it when it deploys.

366TH TRANSPORTATION SQUADRON. Commanded by Major William K. Bass, the 366th Transportation Squadron is a combination of a truck dispatch office, a passenger and cargo airline, and a warehousing and trucking company. Centered in a small cluster of offices and spaces in a hangar next to the flight line at Mountain Home, the Transportation Squadron is in charge of getting the wing and all its 'stuff' from one place to another in a minimum of time, and with the least demand on AMC's limited airlift capacity. Heavy airlifters are scarce national assets, and they are spread very thin by the need to respond to multiple crises around the world.

Major Bass and his staff are constantly developing and refining contingency plans in their small hangar offices. Around the walls of their conference room are thirty small 'white' boards, each representing a numbered load of equipment, cargo, and personnel to be loaded aboard a C-141B Starlifter, to support an 'A' Package (the smallest force deployed by the Wing) of aircraft, equipment, and personnel. Now, this represents an ideal situation, with the wing deploying to an excellent host facility (like the Saudi bases used during Desert Shield and Desert Storm), with AMC standing by to send three dozen C-141s and some KC-10s to deploy the unit to the crisis area ASAP. In actuality, what will probably arrive, with only an hour or two of notice from AMC at Scott AFB, is a varied mix of heavy airlift aircraft. These may range from C-17s and C-5s, which carry a lot more than a C-141, to chartered civilian 747s and MD-11 freighters, which carry less and are limited to palletized cargo