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

constellation of MILSTAR communications satellites.

• 6th SOS—Located at Offut AFB, Nebraska (adjacent to STRATCOM headquarters), this squadron controls the DMSP-series of meteorological satellites for USSPACECOM.

There are undoubtedly other SOS-type units assigned to control of 'black' programs like the imaging and ELINT/SIGINT programs, but their story will have to wait for a future telling, after it has been declassified.

Space-based systems can be extremely valuable to a force going into combat. While many of these systems were directly tied to strategic missions during the Cold War, and thus closely held by the National Command Authorities, the end of that conflict has allowed almost every military commander to have some use for space. For many it will be the beautiful simplicity of things like the hand-held GPS receivers used during Desert Storm. For the 366th Wing, it will be the vital data flow delivered by the satellite dishes of the 366th Communications Squadron, which will distribute the products of the space infrastructure to the wing's users.

CATS AND DOGS — OTHER ATTACHED UNITS

In this chapter, you have seen how virtually anything can be plugged into the 366th Wing structure. Some of the specialized units that might be added to the wing on an 'as required' basis by the National Command Authorities (NCAs) include:

• Stealth Bombers/Fighters—The B-2As and F-117As of the 509th BW and 49th FW respectively are irreplaceable national assets, closely controlled by the NCAs. Nevertheless, given the importance of the missions that the 366th would undertake, a detachment of F-117s might be assigned to the wing, or a strike by B-2s might be authorized, once they acquire a Precision Guided Munitions capability in the late 1990s.

• Cruise Missiles—The 366th does not currently have a capability to employ the AGM- 86C aboard their B-1Bs, so any air-launched cruise missiles would have to come from one of the B-52 units equipped to do the job, such as the 2nd BW at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. The B-52Hs of the 2nd BW can carry several types of standoff weapons, including the AGM-86C ALCM, and the AGM-142 Have Nap standoff missile. With their precision guidance systems, these formidable weapons could be launched from outside the range of enemy defenses. As an added bonus, the B-52s could be launched on their missions directly from the continental United States, much as they were on the first night of Operation Desert Storm. In addition to the B-52s, the wing might also be able to task U.S. Navy ships and submarines to fire U/ BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs). This would be possible now that the new GPS-equipped Block-III guidance systems have made it to the fleet. The use of GPS guidance systems greatly simplifies the process of mission planning for both the TLAMs and ALCM-Cs, requiring a minimum of support from the Defense Mapping Agency and other organizations.

• Tankers—One resource that Dave McCloud would tell you he never has enough of is airborne gas. It is almost certain that additional tankers would be assigned to the 366th Wing in the event of an emergency deployment. Most desired, of course, are the big KC-10A Extenders, because of their ability to take gas from other tankers, their truly huge giveaway capacity, and their ability to fuel either USAF aircraft with their boom receptacles, or USN/USMC/NATO aircraft with their drogue-and- probe units at the same time. Most likely, though, the reinforcing tankers would probably come from AMC's large pool of KC-135Rs, which have several decades of service ahead of them.

• Inter-Theater Transport—In any kind of deployment several squadrons of C-130 Hercules medium transports would be needed to move personnel and cargo from rear areas to the forward airfields. During Desert Shield and Desert Storm the press never noticed the vital job done by C-130 units (many were Air National Guard and Reserve squadrons) hauling bombs and missiles, spare parts, black boxes, food, and almost everything but fuel to the various wing airfields around the Persian Gulf. (The Saudis took care of the fuel.) Today, the logistical rules have not changed one bit, and this job would have to be done, or the wing's efforts would come to an immediate and grinding halt.

Of course, virtually any other kind of USAF flying unit could be plugged into the 366th Wing structure. This could range from the LANTIRN-EQUIPPED F-16Cs of the 388th FW at Hill AFB to beef up the wing's PGM delivery capability, to U-2s or RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft from the 9th Reconnaissance Wing (RW) and 55th RW respectively. In fact, what goes overseas with the 366th Wing will probably be limited only by planners' imaginations, and what is available at the time.

CONOPS: THE 366TH STYLE OF WAR

One of the viewgraphs you see during Colonel Scott's briefing on the Wing says, 'The 366th Wing lives, works, plays, trains, deploys, and fights TOGETHER.' It's easy enough to tell squadrons they will live at the same home base, but can you make them fight as one team? For the 366th, togetherness is more than just lip service. The togetherness shows in many ways, like on Friday nights when all the officers in the wing gather at the officers' club for happy hour. You don't see clusters of F-16 pilots, F-15 pilots, or tanker crews. Instead, you see mixed clusters, with waving arms describing formations (pilots can't really talk without their hands), new tactics, and ideas. These people really are interested in what is happening in the other units of the wing.

On a more practical level, a very impressive planning effort has gone into getting the Gunfighters ready to fight. These plans continue to be improved and refined, with a primary focus on getting the wing where it is going with less use of the Air Force's scarce heavy airlifters, and getting more out of the 366th's pool of aircraft and weapons. Let's look closer at how the Gunfighters would get to a crisis.

Getting There: The 366th Wing Deployment Plan

The 366th library of deployment and operations plans is constantly growing on the disk drives and in the notebooks at the headquarters on Gunfighter Boulevard. We're going to look at just one of the deployment options — the movement of the wing to a well-developed base in a friendly host nation. By well-developed, we mean that the base has adequate facilities — aircraft shelters to house the wing, barracks or tent facilities for personnel, and stores of supplies such as fuel, water, and munitions compatible with USAF aircraft. Most friendly nations have supplies of jet fuel; and 80-series bomb warheads are quite common around the world. Also, the 366th might draw on prepositioned stores of such supplies, or access one of the maritime prepositioned ships stationed at places like Diego Garcia and Guam.

The 366th deployment scheme is designed around response forces packaged (i.e., sized and matched) to meet the particular crisis in question. It may be enough to send just a few fighters and tankers to a crisis zone to keep a lid on events until reinforcements can be assembled and sent. Other times, you may want to pile on into a given situation, to deter a particular rogue regime from making trouble. To keep things simple, the 366th Operations Group has designed a series of packages which allow the NCAs to quickly order a particular force into a crisis. The following chart shows the breakdown of the packages:

366th Wing Deployment Package Options

As can be seen from the six options in the table, the smallest deployment unit, known as an A Package, includes twenty-four fighters and fighter bombers (eight F-15Cs, eight F-15Es, and eight F-16Cs), along with four KC- 135Rs configured for FAST tanker deployment. The B and C Packages build upon the basic A Package by adding additional aircraft, until the entire Mountain Home force is committed. In addition, each package has a 'plus' option,