A contingent of 10 F-16s and 108 airmen from the 62nd Fighter Squadron at Luke AFB, Ariz., is operating out of Langley AFB, Va., for several weeks to provide Langley’s F-22s with mock adversaries in training drills. “We are here to provide realistic adversary capabilities and tactics for F-22 training,” said Capt. Luke Kippert, one of the visiting pilots. The F-16s will also team with the F-22s in some drills to practice combined force tactics, he said. The visit marks the Luke airmen’s first visit to Langley, but they’ve flown with F-22s before at other places. Kippert said the F-16 fliers realize that the F-22s outclass their aircraft, but they still play an important role in providing the F-22 pilots with realistic training. In March, T-38s from Holloman AFB, N.M., visited Langley to fly against the F-22s. (Langley report by A1C Jason J. Brown)
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…