A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon plane takes off for a nighttime mission at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Aug. 22, 2017. The image was taken Aug. 22, 2017. (REUTERS/Josh Smith/File Photo)
MANILA, Philippines — United States Air Force F-16 jets arrived over the weekend to conduct two weeks of air combat drills and exchanges with the Philippine Air Force (PAF) beginning on Monday.
The PAF not too long ago concluded its first-ever interoperability train with the Philippine Army.
According to PAF spokesperson Col. Maynard Mariano, the F-16 jets of the US Air Force’s thirteenth Fighter Squadron, or Panthers, touched down on Saturday at Basa Air Base in Pampanga.
The Panthers will participate in this yr’s S (BACE) with the PAF Bulldogs of the seventh Fighter Squadron and the Blackjacks of the one hundred and fifth Fighter Training Squadron from March 14 to March 25.
“For 12 days, these units will be involved in one of the most rigorous air exercises being conducted between the two countries,” Mariano mentioned.
Intensive coaching
This yr’s BACE would contain drills and exchanges on air-to-air engagement, floor strike and air-to-ground engagement, command and management or air weapons management.
“Airspaces of the exercises will be at the intensive military training areas 1 and 2 and the Crow Valley [Tarlac] airspace,” the PAF spokesperson mentioned.
Meanwhile, the PAF concluded its first interoperability train with the Philippine Army on Friday on the 2nd Infantry Jungle Fighter Division headquarters in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal province.
Some 1,000 Army and Air Force personnel took half in the joint coaching, which began on March 7 and included army free fall, bundle drop, helicopter sniping, quick rope insertion extraction system, air evacuation coaching, and communications and electronics workouts.
The PAF-Army interoperability train goals to “address gaps in joint operations and achieve seamless air-to-ground communications and operations between the two Armed Forces of the Philippines major services,” Army spokesperson Col. Xerxes Trinidad identified.
The joint train, he additional mentioned, additionally examined the brand new communications system put in in PAF planes enabling floor troops to “securely and effectively communicate with pilots and crew.”
The interoperability train, likewise, was geared toward capacitating the PAF and Army in rising the survivability of combat-wounded troopers.
The train concerned each bodily workouts and digital subject material knowledgeable exchanges.
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