By GARY A. WARNER/Oregon Capital Bureau
Hornets and Eagles will battle for control of the skies over the Oregon coast the next two weeks.
An Oregon National Guard statement issued Monday said air-to-air mock dogfights to train pilots will feature the F-15C Eagle interceptors of the Oregon Air National Guard’s 123rd Fighter Squadron and the F/A-18E Super Hornets of Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-192.
The “dissimilar air combat training” exercises began Monday and will run through Friday before taking a weekend break and resuming next week.
The squadrons will take off and land from the Portland Air National Guard base at Portland International Airport. The jets will fly out over the Pacific Ocean for the actual high-speed maneuvering. Other sessions would be over designated airspace in Eastern Oregon.
In order to avoid noise disruption in the Portland area, the aircraft will wait until after 8 a.m. to launch and return by 4 p.m.
It was jets from the Oregon Air National Guard, which 18 months ago rattled the central coast with massive sonic booms during similar training – later called a pilot mistake by the Oregon National Guard’s 142nd Wing, based in Portland.
Air National Guard pilots train every weekday off the Oregon coast or in eastern Oregon. On the coast, the training area stretches from offshore Astoria to off the south end of Lincoln County. Pilots fly one- and two-seat F15 Eagles. The Dec. 14, 2021 incident violated rules meant to prevent sonic booms from hitting the coast, the Guard later said.
The Oregon training is meant to train pilots from different branches of the U.S. military on how to work together in a combat situation. The simulations also underscore how pilots would both fight with and against aircraft with different capabilities and pilots with different training.
VFA-192, nicknamed “Golden Dragons,” is one of the west coast squadrons assigned to five nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, each of which can carry more than 64 planes and helicopters. The squadron was most recently attached to the Nimitz-class carrier USS Carl Vinson based in San Diego.
When not at sea, the squadrons are based at Naval Air Station Lemoore in central California.
The Navy and Marine Corps are the only branches to fly variants of the F/A-18E Super Hornet, a two-seat version of the original single-seat Hornet, which entered service in 1978.
The Air National Guard squadron, nicknamed “Redhawks,” flies F-15Cs whose primary role is to knock out enemy aircraft to establish “air superiority” over a battlefield on land or at sea. The Air Force is the only branch of the American military that flies the F-15C.
The 123rd Fighter Squadron is part of the Oregon National Guard’s 142nd Wing, a reserve component of the Air Force.
Lt. Col. Joshua Hovanas, the 123rd Fighter Squadron commander, said in a statement that the training provides realistic combat scenarios for pilots to hone advanced aerial tactics that may be used against potential adversaries.
“This training with the Golden Dragons is a unique opportunity for the Redhawks to refine and reinforce joint air-superiority tactics,” Hovanas said.
The Air National Guard F-15C Eagle would also be used to intercept enemy bombers approaching a target. It has a top speed of Mach 2.5 — two and one-half times the speed of sound, or just under 1,900 mph.
The F/A-18 Hornet have been used in combat to support ground attacks and make bomb or missile strikes against troops or other targets. It also was used to shoot down Russian-built MiG aircraft flown by enemy forces. The Hornet has a top speed of Mach 1.6, just over one-and-one-half times the speed of sound, or nearly 1,200 mph.
- The Oregon Capital Bureau in Salem is staffed by reporters from EO Media and Pamplin Media Group and provides state government and political news to their newspapers and media around Oregon, including YachatsNews.com
I once shared a commercial flight with two Oregon Air National Guards. They were laughing up a storm about the amount of jet fuel they burned through just getting airborne, and how much money it must cost.
Apparently there is no shortage of taxapayer funds to pay for these weekend warriors to engage in “air-to-air mock dogfights.” How safe and happy we all must feel as a result!