The F-16 added a battering ram to its quiver in August when the 55th Fighter Squadron from Shaw AFB, South Carolina, launched the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile. These missiles, better known as JASSMs, were launched from two Fighting Falcons from the 55th at Combat Hammer exercises at Hill AFB, Utah.
"This is a first for the F-16 community," noted Lt. Col. David Lujan, commander of the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron in charge of the exercise. "The F-16 now has a cruise missile capability."
"Having the JASSM in the F-16 arsenal is key to the flexibility for combined force commanders," added Lt. Col. David Hathaway, commander of the 55th FS and one of the two F-16 pilots to drop a JASSM in the exercise. "The JASSM gives us the ability to conduct suppression of enemy air defense missions at standoff distances or, better yet, negates the need for these missions during surgical strikes to take down high-value targets."
The JASSM, built by Lockheed Martin in Troy, Alabama, is the world's stealthiest conventional cruise missile. The 2,000-pound class weapon has deployable wings and is powered by a small Teledyne Continental Motors jet engine that allows it to cruise autonomously. It uses a state-of-the-art infrared seeker in addition to the enhanced digital anti-jam global positioning system receiver to find specific aimpoints on targets in adverse weather, day or night. A stealthy airframe makes it extremely difficult for air defense systems to engage.
The JASSMs launched at Hill have a range of more than 200 nautical miles. An extended-range version under development, called JASSM-ER, has a range exceeding 500 nautical miles. The launches at Combat Hammer are the first time an operational F-16 unit has ever employed JASSM. Likewise, JASSM is the first cruise missile ever released from an F-16.
Eight JASSMs were launched during the exercise. One JASSM was delivered from each of the two F-16s from the 55th FS. The other six missiles were delivered from B-52s from the 23rd Bomber Squadron, Minot AFB, North Dakota; B-1Bs from the 37th Bomber Squadron, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota; and B-2s from the 393rd Bomber Squadron, Whiteman AFB, Missouri. Each unit sent two aircraft, each aircraft launching one JASSM. While the F-16s took off from and returned to Hill AFB during the exercise, the bombers flew to the Utah range from their home bases, released their missiles, then returned to their home bases.
The JASSM launches capped the last week of a busy three-week Combat Hammer exercise. This session included A-10 Warthogs from the 103rd Fighter Squadron at NAS JRB Willow Grove, Pennsylvania; F-15E Strike Eagles from the 336th Fighter Squadron from Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina; F-22 Raptors from the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron from Nellis AFB, Nevada; MQ-1 Predators from the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron from Creech AFB, Nevada; and additional F-16s from the 510th Fighter Squadron from Aviano AB, Italy.
Combat Hammer is the US Air Force formal program for evaluating the operational effectiveness of precision-guided munitions. These highly scrutinized bomb dropping and missile firing sessions, also known as air-to-ground Weapon System Evaluation Programs, or WSEPs, are conducted at two locations: the Utah Test and Training Range near Hill AFB and the range complex surrounding Eglin AFB, Florida.
Responsibility for Combat Hammer falls under the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Eglin. The unit provides a cradle-to-grave assessment of all of the precision-guided weapons in the Air Force. Members assess the effectiveness and suitability of these weapons through realistic and tactical scenarios — from the time the bomb is built through the moment the bomb impacts.
The latest exercise involved more than 100 total weapons, which included AGM-65 Maverick missiles, Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispensers, GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, GBU-10 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs, GBU-12 500-pound laser-guided bombs, AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, and AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles.
Aside from dropping two JASSMs, F-16 pilots from the 55th also dropped JDAMs and WCMDs and launched HARMs. "Combat Hammer is part of an evaluation program to validate our squadron training, weapons loaders, maintainers, aircraft systems, and weapons," explained Hathaway, 55th FS commander. "We employed more than $8.5 million in air-to-ground weapons, including JASSMs, HARMs, JDAMs, Sensor-Fused Weapons, and Combined Effects Munitions. All the weapons were employed in combat scenarios with both air-to-air and surface-to-air threats."
"This is also the first time for one-third of the pilots in the 55th Fighter Squadron to drop these bombs," added Lt. Col. Tom Littleton, director of operations for the 55th. "It is a rare operation. Pilots may get only two of these types of deployments in their entire career."
"Employing JASSMs from four different weapons systems was the culmination of bringing the JASSM into the operational world," added Lujan. "The capability our combatant commanders now have with the JASSM is immense. The Air Force now is fully operational with a 'knock the door down' standoff weapon. We bring such newly fielded weapons to Combat Hammer to polish and perfect our concepts of operations. While we demonstrated the capability of the JASSM to destroy difficult targets, we also proved the entire concept of the weapon system — from mission planning to target impact. This exercise proved that crews in the B-52, F-16, B-1, and B-2 are ready for the challenge of employing JASSMs if called to do so."
Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.
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