TUCSON, Ariz., - Sergeants through lieutenant colonels - the
warfighters serving abroad and defending the homeland - gathered here Oct.
18-22 to tell Guard and Reserve senior leaders what they need to improve
capability in the Air Reserve Component.
Their focus was on "Legacy platforms, future fight" as told by this year's
theme at the Weapons and Tactics Conference (WEPTAC) held at Tucson
International Airport, home of conference hosts the Air National Guard, Air
Force Reserve Command Test Center (AATC) and the 162nd Fighter Wing.
Nearly 1,800 Guard and Reserve Airmen representing every ARC weapon system
assembled to present leaders with the unvarnished, honest and direct input
they need to translate funding into products and capabilities over the next
few years.
"We bring in people from the field who know what is needed to make us
better. WEPTAC is pretty important for us. This is where we derive our
requirements and how we want to secure them down the road," said Col.
Richard Dennee, AATC commander.
The week-long conference consisted of 28 working groups meeting to compile a
list of needs for each airframe and weapon system. It concluded with group
chairmen briefing their findings to the Director of the Air Guard, Lt. Gen.
Harry Wyatt III, and Daniel B. Ginsberg, the Assistant Secretary of the Air
Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
"These are the people who have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan and have come
back with learned lessons on what they need to do their job better," said
Colonel Dennee. "And we do see results. We see results as soon as six months
after the conference or up to a couple of years later."
Past WEPTACs produced clear goals for the Guard and Reserve. With input from
the conference, test center pilots and engineers have helped the ARC field
new software, better communications and more lethal weapons.
And while bringing ideas to reality, AATC finds low-cost, highly-capable,
off-the-shelf solutions.
One example at the center of attention was an early model F-16 Fighting
Falcon equipped with the latest technology in precision weapons.
"We putting the newest weapons and latest Litening targeting pods on the
oldest aircraft in the inventory," said Lt. Col. Todd Seger, combined test
force director for AATC. "We have small weapons racks that carry four small
diameter bombs on each wing. This is the first time they've been integrated
on the F-16 and we'll begin testing them next month with hopes of getting
them to the rest of the Guard and Reserve as soon as possible."
According to Colonel Seger, WEPTAC helps AATC ensure that it is prioritizing
projects that are relevant to everyone, not just for the F-16, so that Air
Force mission is better served as a whole.
"It's the best job in the world. We get to use new aircraft weapons
software, new pods, new weapons and produce capability that makes the
warfighter safer and more lethal," he said.
In the personnel recovery arena, the test center applied input from the
field to improve combat search and rescue operations.
Engineers here upgraded the HH-60G Pave Hawk with dual smart color
multi-function displays for pilots and co-pilots replacing outdated
monochrome displays.
The new touch screen LCD displays are full color and offer an array of tools
to include moving maps, forward looking infrared and a turret camera to name
a few.
"It's an awesome system," said Lt. Col. Jeff Peterson, CSAR program manager
for AATC. "I can run a full up situational awareness data link, I can link a
helmet mounted cueing display and I can access a full moving map which makes
it so easy.
"I used to fly with a laptop on my lap and pass it back and forth with the
co-pilot. Now we both have linked displays that make everything safer and
more efficient. We started fielding these in September. In 12 months we went
from a concept to building these - that's unheard of across the combat Air
Force."
For the Airmen who fly the most seasoned aircraft in the inventory the need
to keep up with the active duty's newer platforms necessitates the bottom-up
information flow offered by WEPTAC.
"We have a lot of the legacy platforms and we have to keep them relevant for
the future fight," said Colonel Dennee. "Understanding the threat, the enemy
and the new technologies out there for us we're working to take that new
technology and modernize our airplanes to be the best that we can be."