At one time NAS Key West had two aggressor squadrons, but by 1993 both had been decommissioned.

The USAF just reactivated one of its aggressor squadrons at Nellis after a 16 year hiatus.
www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=424859

Seems like both the Navy and Air Force are (once again) getting serious about aggressor based training.
Wonder who is making them nervous....



by Rob Koon
NAVAIR Public Affairs

The Navy's newest adversary detachment has just begun flying operations out
of Naval Air Station Key West, Fla. Twelve F-5N Tiger fighter aircraft and
their pilots will fly adversary training missions against carrier battle
groups during their pre-deployment exercises.

"As a matter of fact, the detachment just finished their first operational
tasking flying air-to-air missions against Strike Fighter Squadron-106
(VFA-106) Super Hornets, "said Jay Bolles, the Integrated Program Team lead
for Adversary Aircraft in PMA-207. "They flew 158 flights in two weeks with
eight aircraft."

The adversary pilots flying the Tiger's are from Fighter Composite
Squadron-13 (VFC-13). There are 20 pilots, eight active duty and 12 Navy
Reserve and 40 enlisted members. The detachment at Key West is part of the
same unit that also supports the Top Gun school at the Naval Strike Air
Warfare Center at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nev.

"The Navy tasked us with flying these adversary missions four to five times
a year from NAS Fallon, Nev., but the costs of getting the adversary
aircraft, pilots and maintenance staff out to NAS Key West was just getting
too expensive," said Bolles. "In order to save money we decided to establish
a detachment of 12 jets permanently down in Key West."

This initiative began in August 2004 and the goal was to get the jets and
people set up and operational in Key West by October 2005. But a few
challenges were encountered along the way: the high cost of housing, getting
people hired, getting support equipment for the aircraft and specifically,
the four hurricanes that struck Florida this year. Those four hurricanes
caused the aircraft and people to be evacuated from NAS Key West, where the
detachment is based.

"Mother Nature did not cooperate with us at all; we had four major
hurricanes and four evacuations. The last hurricane literally put the entire
base under two feet of water," said Bolles. "There were employees who lost
just about everything, but they've managed to get back together to where we
are today."

Sikorsky supplies the maintenance team and the support equipment needed to
operate the Tigers. "Sikorsky did a great job getting all the support
equipment and all the other things needed to run a detachment in place down
there," said John Dennis, logistics support lead for Adversary Aircraft,
PMA-207.

"I think that the teamwork shown by the program office, the Commander Navy
Air Reserve Forces, VFC-13, Sikorsky and Northrop Grumman paints a really
good picture and created a great partnership," said Bolles. "A lot of people
said there was no way that we were going to be able to pull this off and we
did it. I don't take the credit, it was the team that accomplished this and
it's a real success story."

My Dad used go to Nellis for Red Flag 25 years or so ago...Mom loved it because it meant a trip to Vegas for her usually.

Was stationed at NAS Key West, weapons department from 89-92. A very cool duty station.

Quoted: Was stationed at NAS Key West, weapons department from 89-92. A very cool duty station.

Ugh. Kweer West is ass.
Tot hot, too humid, too many kweers.
The bks sucked, and without transportation it was really ass.

I stayed at Key West for school with VAQ-33 back in the early 80's.
Lived at Boca Chica, school was at Trumbo Point.
At least it was cool to watch the Navys Hydrofoil BOats out in the bay.

Looks like we're anticipating going head to head with some unfriendly folks in the sky.


Wonder who that would be.

Quoted: Seems like both the Navy and Air Force are (once again) getting serious about aggressor based training. Wonder who is making them nervous....

Quoted: Quoted: Seems like both the Navy and Air Force are (once again) getting serious about aggressor based training. Wonder who is making them nervous.... www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/bus/chinese/CHINA_LAG.jpg

Hope this makes BostonTerrier happy.

VFA-106 is in my CAG. I wonder when this was, exactly. We were just at NAS Fallon 2 weeks ago...

We should be seeing these guys in April, when we do COMP2EX.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Seems like both the Navy and Air Force are (once again) getting serious about aggressor based training. Wonder who is making them nervous.... www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/bus/chinese/CHINA_LAG.jpg Hope this makes BostonTerrier happy.

$5 says he'll bitch that they're using F-5s.

F-5s are ancient. Its a wonder they still fly after 30 years of continuous operation. I hope nobody dies when one falls apart in mid air.

B52's are supposed to have been coming off the assembly line since 1954.  They are expected to be in operation until around 2040.  (According to the history channel.)  So 30 years should be nothing.

Quoted: F-5s are ancient. Its a wonder they still fly after 30 years of continuous operation. I hope nobody dies when one falls apart in mid air.

Johnny Ringo F/A 18: You retired too?
Doc Holliday F 5: Not me. I'm in my prime.

Quoted: F-5s are ancient. Its a wonder they still fly after 30 years of continuous operation. I hope nobody dies when one falls apart in mid air.

I believe we have some newer ones now. I could be wrong.

Quoted: F-5s are ancient. Its a wonder they still fly after 30 years of continuous operation. I hope nobody dies when one falls apart in mid air.

The F-5's are from the Swiss. We sold them F-5's when they wanted to upgrade their F-86's, we sold them F-18's when they wanted to upgrade their F-5's.

The Swiss F-5's are in excellent condition, low hours and little corrosion.

The F-5N/Fs are third-generation F-5 fighter aircraft designed for replacement of the F-5A/B/E production models.

These aging F-5A/B/E aircraft will be replaced by low-houred F-5N/F acquired from the Swiss Air Force surplus by United States Navy (USN).

Currently, the Swiss F-5N Replacement Program replaces the present high-time Navy F-5Ns with low-time F-5Ns allowing the USN/USMC to operate the F-5N aircraft to Fiscal Year (FY) 2015.

The Phase Depot Maintenance (PDM) required modifications to USN configuration provides a safer, lower-flight time Adversary aircraft with increased capability for Department of Navy (DoN) pilots.

These aircraft are assigned to Government facilities, namely, Detachment Key West, Florida, MCAS Yuma, Arizona, and NAS Fallon, Nevada.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=1100&tid=1050&ct=1

Too bad they don't use these:

Quoted: Looks like we're anticipating going head to head with some unfriendly folks in the sky. Wonder who that would be.

Read where Iran could seriously be on the list.................

I saw two of these F-5 aggressors fly out of West Palm Beach International a few months back.  I was flying in and saw two of them in the aggressor paint schemes (one in desert camo, one in that sort of soviet navy blue) waiting for us to land and taxi.  Took off as soon as we taxied off the runway.  I think this was just before Katrina passed through the south-Florida tip, so I figured they were doing a stopover in WPB on their way north

If you use Google Earth, the satellite images of NAS Key West show F/A-18s and F-5s on the tarmac.

Quoted: Quoted: Looks like we're anticipating going head to head with some unfriendly folks in the sky. Wonder who that would be. Read where Iran could seriously be on the list.................

No, no, no... Iran's AF wouldn't last 20 minutes.

Keep looking.  Hint: You might want to try moving east.

Quoted: Quoted: Seems like both the Navy and Air Force are (once again) getting serious about aggressor based training. Wonder who is making them nervous....

or

Mig-28s

bump

Quoted: Mig-28s

NO ONE'S BEEN THIS CLOSE BEFORE!!!!!

Quoted: No, no, no... Iran's AF wouldn't last 20 minutes.

What do you mean, they have the F-14Tomcat.....

Quoted: Too bad they don't use these: members.aon.at/mwade/f20mts.jpg

Ahh, the dreaded "MiG 28".
"I'll pop my brakes and he'll fly right by!"  


Shit.
Late to the party.

Quoted: Quoted: No, no, no... Iran's AF wouldn't last 20 minutes. What do you mean, they have the F-14Tomcat.....

26+ years later, I think they call them "static displays".

We should buy a couple squadrons of Su-27/35s for the aggressor squadrons since that's the primary threat aircraft out there right now.