The Lowdown From Luke: Inside The Air Force’s Biggest Fighter Wing
Jamie Hunter - Yesterday 3:32 PM
A seemingly never-ending procession of F-16 and F-35 fighter jets taxi out, depart, and recover at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona each working day. The scale of the airpower training operation at this sprawling air base near Phoenix is awe-inspiring. “Luke is the largest fighter wing in the world, and it also has the largest ops wing in the world,” says Lt. Col. Jason “Trunk” Bartels, chief of integration at the resident 56th Fighter Wing.
Four F-35A and four F-16 squadrons are currently based at Luke under Air Education and Training Command (AETC), catering not only to the U.S. Air Force but also to partner-nation and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer pilot and maintainer training. This accounts for a mind-blowing 175 jets. The four F-35 Formal Training Units (FTUs) typically fly 20 sorties per day, so that’s at least 80 daily F-35 missions alone.
Bartels is responsible for long-term planning and wing optimization, partner nation training, and the contract Adversary Air (ADAIR) support at the base. “We have Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, and Norway [training on the F-35 here]. Coming up, Canada would be the last [partner nation training] slated to come to Luke.” Belgium is also planning to undertake its F-35 training at Luke from 2024, but as an FMS customer rather than a partner in the core F-35 program.
“I’m confident there’s no better place in the world than Luke to train our young fighter pilots and transition our older fighter pilots [to the F-35],” says Lt. Col. Gert “Razor” van Woerden, the senior national representative for the Dutch detachment at Luke, which comes under the 308th Fighter Squadron “Emerald Knights.” The Royal Netherlands Air Force trains alongside U.S and Danish F-35 personnel in this unit. Across the flight line, the 62nd “Spike” Fighter Squadron is composed of American, Italian, and Norwegian personnel.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-lowdown-from-luke-inside-the-air-force-s-biggest-fighter-wing/ar-AA11PEbf?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=403a85c309cf48a4b1044d23c87a9daf
