Airmen of the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Fighter Wing, in Fargo, are preparing to give up their F-16s and participate with Grand Forks AFB, N.D., on a new mission flying Predator UAVs. To assuage nervous members, reports the Associated Press news service, Guard officials recently brought in two speakers—corporate consultant and trainer Dale Henry and CMSgt. Richard Smith, ANG’s command chief, who talked about the upcoming switch. The Happy Hooligans have flown F-16 Vipers since 1990, dating its history to the F-51 in 1947.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...