Project Constant Peg

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

From 1985 to 1987, Jack Manclark, the Air Force’s former test and evaluation director, oversaw a special-access program dubbed “Constant Peg.” Under this then-secret initiative, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy fighter pilots trained in the skies northwest of Las Vegas at the Tonopah Test Range on how to fight against Soviet MiGs—by going up against actual Soviet-built fighters that the United States acquired. “The purpose was to expose US fighter crews to MiGs,” said Manclark during a July 31 speech sponsored by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies in Arlington, Va. “We wanted them to be able to kill a MiG the first time they saw it.” Despite the secrecy surrounding the program, all sorties were conducted during the day, he said. Continue to the full report.

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org