Focus on Pacific Theater and Agile Combat Employment: Exclusive Interviews with F-35 Pilots of Northern Lightning 2024

The annual two week long Northern Lightning exercise located at Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center in Wisconsin commenced last week.  This year’s event has some noticeable changes, such as the physical inventory of the air assets located at Volk, as well as the format of the daily sorties.

The changes that were observed fall in line with the overall theme that was publicly announced by the exercise director, prior to the start of Northern Lightning 2024. In summary, it was stated that the exercise focus would entail using agile combat employment schemes, that replicate operational assumptions, in the Pacific theater.

What this translated to was a slimmed down presence of aircraft on the ramp at Volk Field. In addition, home basing for some participating Air National Guard F-35A’s. This resulted in longer missions for the home based aircraft. Furthermore, first time employment of the F-35C, as well as establishing a contingency location for the F-35A’s from the Wisconsin Air National Guard, from nearby Truax Field, to Volk Field.

Many of the above mentioned observations are concepts that are core to Agile Combat Employment (ACE). Such as:

1. The use of dispersed locations, as seen with the Wisconsin F-35A’s from the 115th Fighter Wing, moving operations to Volk Field from home base, Truax Field, Wisconsin.
2. Home basing the Vermont ANG F-35A’s from the 158th Fighter Wing, Burlington, Vermont, as well as the F-35A’s from the 187th Fighter Wing, Montgomery, Alabama, thereby emulating long distance sorties, that are anticipated in Pacific theater combat scenarios.
3. Utilizing the F-35C from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 311, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, CA. It is important to note, the F-35C is an extremely effective aircraft, designed for operations on aircraft carriers. It is the most fuel efficient of the F-35’s, and has the longest range, with it hauling an impressive 19,750 lbs. of fuel. In addition, it has significant weapons-carrying capacity of up to 18,000 lbs. This mix of features makes for a potent fighting platform in the Pacific.

The fighter composition at Volk Field totaled twenty-two aircraft, consisting of:

• Six F-35A’s from 115th Fighter Wing, Madison, Wisconsin.
• Six F-35C’s from VMFA-311, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, CA.
• Nine F-16C’s and One F-16D from the 180th Fighter Wing, Toledo, Ohio.

Participation from 4th generation F-16 assets consist of:

• F-16C’s from the 179th Fighter Squadron, Duluth, Minnesota
• Six F-16’s from the Air National Guard – Air Force Reserve Command Test Center, Tucson Arizona, but staging out of Truax Field, Madison Wisconsin

The mix of F-16 and F-35 fighters participating in this year’s Northern Lightning ensures that the pilots and air crews will operate in an environment with adversary aircraft, electronic jamming, and simulated surface to air threats.

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA-311, F-35C Pilot Discussion

In order to obtain a more detailed view into the day to day flight operations at Northern Lightning 2024, The Aviationist was privileged to participate in an exclusive interview with two F-35C pilots from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 311 (Nickname: Tomcats).

Major Chris “Sméagol” Villarreal from Arlington, Texas is an F-35C pilot with 600 hours in the F-35C. “Sméagol” joined VMFA-311 in June of 2023 and also has time in the F-18C and D model, while at VMFAT-101. Captain Bobby “HANSEL” Gomez from Cincinnati, Ohio is an F-35C pilot with 200 hours. HANSEL’s first frontline operational aircraft is the F-35C and joined VMFA-311 in May of 2023.

With VMFA-311 recently declaring Initial Operational Capability on Jul. 31, 2024, we wanted to know how many jets does VMFA-311 possess at this time.

Currently, VMFA-311 own six jets, and the full complement will be a total of twelve, said Major Villarreal. Additional jets will be coming, and they will be Technology Refresh 3 configured. Technology Refresh 3 or TR-3, provides the computational horsepower to support Block 4 capabilities for the F-35, including new sensor suites, more long-range precision weapons, improved electronic warfare features, more powerful data fusion, and increased cross-platform interoperability.

Delving into the flying aspects at the exercise, I wanted to know how many missions each of them had flown during the first week. Captain Gomez stated that he and Major Villarreal had flown twice in the week. This was the first time they have ever worked with the Air National Guard, but the integration of working with other F-35 models is quite seamless, data links and connectivity are consistent.

Furthermore, Major Villarreal elaborated that for this exercise VMFA-311 will take turns flying both “Red Air” (adversary) and “Blue Air” (protecting the target), mission scenarios during the two week exercise. No air-refueling is needed for the F-35C missions that are flown each morning and afternoon. The assumption for the missions during this exercise is that the F-35C is operating land based, not from a carrier.

Lastly, I wanted to know what the most difficult aspect of flying and operating the F-35C is. Both “Sméagol” and “HANSEL” quicky agreed that the Sensor Fusion System is a wonder, whereby it takes huge amounts of data from the sensors throughout the jet, and merges it into a comprehensive view, but they stressed that managing this comprehensive view is critical and intense work that they perform, in the jet. Sensor Fusion does not replace the pilot, instead it enhances the pilot’s situational awareness and combat effectiveness.

Wisconsin Air National Guard F-35A Pilot Interview

The Aviationist also participated in a live interview with Lieutenant Alex King from the 115th Fighter Wing, Madison, Wisconsin. Lt. King grew up very close to Madison, Wisconsin, in nearby Sun Prairie.

Lt. King is four months out of F-35A pilot training at Luke Air Force Base. He has approximately 90 hours in the F-35A, with the F-35 being the first frontline fighter he has flown.

The Aviationist: How would describe the scenarios that you are flying at this year’s exercise?

Lt. King: In the morning mission, we generally fly offensive counter air.  That is designed to go into an area and establish air superiority.  Taking out enemy SAM systems is a big focus now. In addition, we are tasked to dynamic targeting and hitting pop-up targets, basically anything that comes up, that the commander on the ground says we need to take out, air threats are also included.

In the afternoon we fly defensive counter air, which is basically defending a point, such as, defending the homeland, defending a boat in the middle of the ocean, etc. Generally, offensive counter air takes up more of the focus. There is significant mission planning involved.

Are you always “Blue Air” or do you go back and fly “Red Air” as well?

Yes, we also fly Red Air. Yesterday I flew as Red Air as there is no contracted adversary air here for this exercise, such as the Top Aces. We will fly approximately 30 to 40% Blue Air and then the rest is supplying Red Air.

Can you talk about integration with other F-35 models such as the F-35C that is participating this year?

The F-35 was built to be interoperable with the B and C models. The aircraft itself is designed to have the same data links, we are very well connected together, but I personally do not have much experience in flying with other models, thus far.

The exercise director, Lt. Col. Michael Cady, talks about the agile aspects of this exercise. Can you please elaborate briefly on your squadron being stationed at Volk Field for the exercise, rather than basing out of your home, Truax Field?

Well certainly for the Ops. guys this is a good opportunity for them to practice moving all of their equipment up here and be able for them to plug in and operate here at a remote location. It is a big learning curve for maintenance having to operate out of somewhere that they are not used to, and turn the jets just like you do at home.

In past years, Northern Lightning was structured in a much more centralized fashion. Mostly all of the fighters were located at Volk. This year it seems to be decentralized. Therefore, when you plan and then debrief, how do you all get together. Is there a group conference call with all the participants on the line?

Yes, exactly, in the brief and also the debrief. Before the flight there’s a time to basically have a group call, like a secure group teleconference. We all go over the plan, make sure everybody’s on the same page. So, the mass brief is a big teleconference with everybody that is flying in from everywhere else. Then you might have another teleconference after the mass brief. Debriefs can be pretty difficult, usually it is trying to pass data on the way home or in a mass debrief.

What is the reasoning for the Vermont and Alabama ANG staging from their home base?

I don’t have all the details on that, but it probably is for the purpose of getting those pilots used to flying extended times and having to tank to get to the fight, which is more realistic in certain parts of the world, that you might end up in.

The Aviationist would like to send out a huge thank you to Kristen “Rambo” Keehan, Volk Field ANGB Public Affairs Specialist. In addition, a very special thanks to Major Chris “Sméagol” Villarreal, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron, VMFA-311, Captain Bobby “HANSEL” Gomez, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron, VMFA-311, and to Lieutenant Alex King, Wisconsin ANG, 115th Fighter Wing.