German Tornado squares off against Laughlin T-38s for first time in base history

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Austin M. May
  • 47th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  A new chapter opened in the history of the 47th Flying Training Wing when a Tornado touched down here Feb. 19.

The Tornado, a twin-engine fighter jet flown by several air forces around the world, belonged to the German Air Force Flying Training Center at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. The aircraft and its two-man flight crew came to Laughlin to square off in mock aerial combat against instructor pilots from the 434th Fighter Training Squadron here.

"This kind of training keeps a fighter pilot's skills sharp while stationed here teaching fighter fundamentals ," said Lt Col. Greg Johnson, 434th FTS commander. He explained that the 434th FTS's instructors are fighter pilots sent to Laughlin from operational squadrons throughout the Air Force to instruct student pilots who have been selected to fly fighter aircraft.

According to the colonel, this is the first time Laughlin has had foreign pilots bring an aircraft here to fly against the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals instructor pilots.

"Previously we didn't have the IFF mission here, so there was no place for this type of training," he said. The squadron stood up in July 2007.

Maj. Jay Flottmann, a flight surgeon and instructor pilot with the 434th FTS, said the school at Holloman is the German equivalent of the U.S. Air Force Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

"[The German school] graduates one class annually, so it's a big deal to be able to support them," he said. "Part of the IFF mission is to provide other fighter training units with cost efficient, professional adversaries."

The major said the entire experience was extremely productive, an "excellent learning experience for [the Germans] as well as us."

One of the instructor pilots who flew against the Tornado pilots was Capt. Jake Hammons, a prior F-15C pilot who has flown against dissimilar aircraft several times before.

He said the biggest benefit of the training, from an instructor pilot standpoint, was the validation of the techniques he teaches his students. During the two sorties flown between the Germans and 434th FTS, pilots concentrated on basic fighter maneuvers taught to students during IFF.

"We did really well using the same basic concepts we teach here," he said. "It doesn't matter which plane you're flying; the basic concepts of one-on-one dogfighting remain the same."

The captain explained the experience was beneficial because it allowed him to shake the mindset of "fighting the same aircraft I fly."

"Every time you fly against a different aircraft, you learn something new," he added.

The 434th pilots were not the only ones who stood to gain something from the experience. The Tornado's pilot, German air force Maj. Axel Hoppe, echoed the captain's sentiments.

He said the experience of flying against different aircraft and pilots provide a more realistic dogfight experience, as opposed to flying against the same aircraft flown by familiar pilots.

Although it is not a combat aircraft, the T-38 Talon proved a worthy adversary for the Tornado.

German air force Maj. Andreas Krzossa, the Tornado's Weapons Systems Officer, who had previously flown against Sheppard Air Force Base's T-38s, commented that the Talon is very similar to the Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 and equal to the Tornado.

Colonel Johnson said the squadron is hoping to train several times between late February and June with the German flight school, eventually deploying the squadron to Holloman to support the air to air phase for the school's graduating student pilots.