A guided tour of Elmendorf’s 477th Fighter Group

  • Published
  • By David Bedard
  • JBER PAO
ELMENDORF AFB, Alaska --  "The Air Force is already recognizing the benefits of using all of its resources from the Reserve, Guard and regular components as it increasingly relies on Reservists to support operational missions throughout the world. Moreover, the Air Force is encouraging the Reserve and Guard to integrate more fully with the regular Air Force in a whole host of missions, adding tremendous value to the forces the Air Force provides to the joint warfighter."

--Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles E. Stenner Jr., Chief of the Air Force Reserve

Air Force Col. John Hillyer, 477th Fighter Group deputy commander, earns his civilian living as a pilot flying for a major logistics services carrier.

During monthly unit training assemblies and between hops, Colonel Hillyer trades in a large subsonic MD-11 cargo trijet for a supersonic, stealthy F-22A Raptor air dominance fighter.

Colonel Hillyer is like many 477th FG Airmen who bring with them their diverse experience to support 3rd Wing and to augment overseas contingency operations worldwide.

"Our mission is to recruit, develop and train Reserve personnel in support of the F-22 classic associate unit here at Elmendorf," he said.

Colonel Hillyer said a classic association is where regular Air Force units - like the 90th and 525th fighter squadrons belonging to 3rd Operations Group - share facilities and equipment with a Reserve unit.

"In this case, it's the F-22 aircraft," Colonel Hillyer explained. "There aren't enough F-22s to go around to have both a regular Air Force capability and a Reserve component capability.

"What we do in a classic associate structure is share that airframe and it's all based on crew ratios," he continued. "On any given day for operational training you will need about a 1.5 crew ratio for the number of pilots to the airplanes.

"So here at Elmendorf (Air Force Base) you will have 1.5 pilots per airplane that you normally use on a day-to-day basis but when you go to war you're going to need that extra 0.5 crew ratio component just for the operations tempo," the colonel explained. "The idea here is to share the resources to keep that 0.5 combat requirement crew ratio trained."

Colonel Hillyer said the unit will ultimately be comprised of approximately 25 percent full-time and 75 percent traditional Reservists who primarily serve during monthly UTAs, commonly called "drill weekends," and a 15-day annual tour.

Full-time Reservists are typically Air Reserve technicians, civil service employees during the week who also attend drill weekends and perform their annual tours.

Colonel Hillyer said sharing facilities and mission support activities with their active component counterparts saves taxpayers money.

"It generates a bunch of efficiencies," he said. "There's one infrastructure, one base that everyone can use, and the cost savings associated with that are tremendous. It's also efficient because generally the Air Reserve component operates with an operating budget of less than one-third of what its active duty counterparts operate with yet our requirements are very much the same.

"We need to organize, train and equip and have all of the training accomplished that the regular component has - all of the ancillary training, all the operational training, all the readiness training - and we do that at one-third the cost because almost 75 percent of our forces are traditional Reservists which are commonly referred to as part time even though there's nothing part time about that job. They have a civilian job and they have their military job and it pretty much takes up their 30 days each month."

Colonel Hillyer said the majority of 477th FG Airmen support 3rd Wing's fighter operations.

"We functionally integrate our people into the 3rd Wing," he elaborated. "Our mission is to support the 3rd Wing mission which in this case is air dominance of the F-22.

"The way we do that is to run our own Air Force Reserve Program, take care of all of the development, care and feeding of our Reservists but then functionally integrate them as just another member of the 3rd Wing in support of the mission here, whether it be flying the F-22 or maintaining the F-22."

According to Colonel Hillyer, the 477th FG F-22-associated units include a fighter squadron, an operations support flight, an aircraft maintenance squadron, and a maintenance squadron.

Air Force Lt. Col. Hubie Hegtvedt, 302nd Fighter Squadron commander, said the squadron is home to 18 F-22 pilots consisting of 10 Traditional Reservists and eight ARTs.

"The ART pilots, full-time force, ensure that when the traditional Reservists come to work, they have someone to help them get back into the fighter pilot mode and verify that all pre-flight requirements are completed in order to maximize their flying training" Colonel Hegtvedt detailed. "What we offer the active-duty Air Force is a lot of fighter pilot experience and invaluable continuity.

"Unlike the active-duty pilots, which typically turn-over every three years, Reservists commonly remain at the same base for many more years. The active-duty squadrons draw on our pilots for some very critical positions in their units," he continued. "We're functionally integrated into those squadrons and when they have a position or a job that needs to be filled, they look at all of the pilots, to include ours, and they pick the right person for the job. In many cases our people have been selected based on the experience and continuity that they offer."

According to the 477th FG website, the 477th Operations Support Flight is responsible for weapons and tactics development, operational planning, flying training guidance, intelligence, aircrew flight equipment and combat-related staff support.

The 477th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron inspects, services, maintains and employs the F-22.

The 477th Maintenance Squadron provides F-22 intermediate level maintenance in areas such as fuel systems, aircraft structural maintenance, aerospace ground equipment, munitions and armament.

The 477th Force Support Squadron provides administrative, educational, family readiness, logistics planning, supply, security, communications and services in support of the 477th FG.

Colonel Hillyer said a civil engineer squadron, an aerospace medicine flight and eventually a security forces squadron serve as a force augmentation role.

"In addition to having a classic associate mission to support air dominance of the F-22 with the 3rd wing, we also have augmentation forces which is what we have traditionally provided in the Air Force Reserve for a long period of time," he detailed.

The 477th Civil Engineer Squadron provides base facility and infrastructure operations and maintenance support, emergency management and contingency response.

Colonel Hillyer said the 477th CES deployed along with elements of the 477th FG headquarters last year to Kirkuk, Iraq, in support of the nation's reconstruction efforts.

The element is currently performing their annual tour by participating at the Silver Flag exercise at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

The 477th Aerospace Medicine Flight manages health programs for 477th FG personnel. The flight establishes medical policies and procedures, administers the aerospace medicine program and provides flight surgeon, clinical nursing, dentistry, optometry, laboratory, bio-environmental and public health support.

The 477th Security Forces Squadron will serve to augment security forces at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and expeditionary forces abroad.

"We're short security forces across the Air Force and we'll have a 60-person security forces squadron that will organize, train and run as an Air Force Reserve Program," Colonel Hillyer related. "But wherever the Air Force needs them, they can fill in as an augmentation force."

According to an Air Force fact sheet, the F-22 is a 5th generation, all-aspect stealth, air dominance fighter capable of a supercruise velocity of Mach 1.5 and reaches a top speed in excess of Mach 2.

"The F-22 is the only 5th generation fighter flying today," Colonel Hegtvedt elaborated. "It offers supercruise where, not using afterburner, it can fly at supersonic speeds and therefore conserve a lot of fuel and still utilize the advantages of high speed. Speed is life in the fighter business. You can compress your tactical timeline and cover more territory in a shorter period of time.

"Three major advantages that the F-22 brings to the fight are: Stealth - which there really aren't any other stealth fighters in the world, Supercruise - which we already discussed, and integrated avionics - which involves fusing all of the high tech sensors on the jet into cockpit displays to maximize situational awareness and lethality for the single-seat fighter pilot."

Colonel Hegtvedt said older fighters used analog "steam gauges" which often made for a bewildering amount of information to process. The F-22 uses a "glass cockpit" with six displays greatly simplifying aircraft operation and increasing situational awareness.

According to the fact sheet, in an air-to-air configuration the F-22 carries an M-61 20-millimeter cannon, six AIM-120 radar-guided missiles and two AIM-9 heat-seeking missiles in an internal bay to maintain the plane's low radar cross section approximately comparable to a bumble bee.

The AN/APG-77 radar is an active electronically scanned array, allowing it to instantly cue its search beam along multiple vectors, an advanced feature when compared to older mechanically scanned arrays which are required to mechanically move the antenna toward a possible threat. Additionally, the AESA radar allows the F-22 to broadcast a powerful radar signal while maintaining stealth.

Vectored thrust nozzles allow the jet to steer hot exhaust, allowing the F-22 to turn quicker than if it used control surfaces alone.

"The airplane is still very new and the tactics are evolving, but one comment that is often made is that the F-22 allows the Air Force to kick down the door where advanced surface-to-air missile systems are deployed - it's the only fighter that can fly against that type of threat, and then allow the rest of the strike force into the AOR (area of responsibility) to complete their missions," the colonel said.

"I think that the F-22, fighting in a mixed force with F-15s (Eagles) or F-16s (Fighting Falcons) is the wave of the future," he continued. "Very few F-22s will be made, so we have to integrate with the rest of our fighter force in order to maximize our firepower."

Colonel Hegtvedt spoke about the contribution former F-15 and F-16 pilots, many operating civilian aircraft full-time, make to the 477th FG and the 3rd wing.

Colonel Hillyer said the group's Reservists contribute to the fight as a whole owing to their diverse and wide experience.

"Our traditional Reservists have civilian employment, everything from doctors, lawyers, airline pilots, school teachers, we have people who work on the North Slope, just a whole wide variety of civilian jobs and that is really the strength of the Air Force Reserve Program," he said. "Because it brings very qualified folks who have tremendous diversity out there in the civil sector, puts them in uniform and injects that diversity into Air Force operations which provides a synergistic effect for our mission."

Although the 477th FG is a new and growing unit that will be hiring more than 300 Reservists during the next two years, it has already been recognized as an Air Force Outstanding Unit in 2009.