future usmc fighter integration

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FEATURE HEADING HERE

48 www.airforcesmonthly.comMAY 2016 #338

AS THE US Marine Corps (USMC) progressestowards fully integrating the Lockheed

Martin F-35B Lightning II into its air wings,

crews flying other Corps aircraft are revisingtheir tactics, techniques and procedures(TTPs) to leverage the F-35’s capabilities withthose of their own aircraft. As the Corps’ firstfifth-generation fighter, the F-35 brings advancedsensors and precision-guided weapons to thebattle, while remaining largely undetected.These capabilities will not change the core

roles of marine aviation, but they are alteringthe way the USMC conducts air warfare. TheUK's military is doing likewise with its futureF-35/Typhoon Force. To ensure seamlessintegration of its McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18Hornet with the F-35, in April 2015 theUSMC introduced the Hornet StandardGame Plan (HSGP), a set of updated TTPsfor its fighter/attack squadrons (VMFAs).Currently an instructor with Marine Aviation

Weapons and Tactics Squadron One(MAWTS-1) at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS)

Yuma, Arizona, Capt Thomas ‘Puppy’ Frey hasflown the F/A-18 since 2009. Capt Frey wasMAWTS-1’s F/A-18 air-to-air employment expert

when the need for updated tactics becameapparent. So the task of revising the Corps’air-to-air TTPs fell largely on his shoulders.Capt Frey told AFM: “Now that we’re flying

the F-35 operationally, we need to find away to integrate it with our F-18s. It wasvery quickly realised that the F-35’s a jointplatform; it’s going to do the same thingregardless of the service using it. The goalhere is for us all to be on the same page.“The F-35 community isn’t going to change

the way it does business to accommodatethe old F-18A through D. In order to integrateseamlessly, we’re going to have to update howwe work, and that was the main genesis, forceand function of the Hornet Standard Game Plan.”The need to integrate the jets is also driving

the USMC away from the US Navy’s Top Gun-generated tactics towards the USAF’s air-to-airwarfare doctrine, as outlined in Air Force Doctrine

Document 3-01, Counterair Operations.Capt Frey explained, “Basically we were pre-

sented with a problem where the F-35 is com-

ing, and F-35 tactics are influenced by differentcommunities, but the community that has themost influence is the F-22, which is a very simi-lar platform, being a fifth-generation fighter.”With the F-22 in service since 2005, the

USAF has a ten-year head start on integratingfourth- and fifth-generation aircraft. Hecontinued: “We in the Marine Corps would bedoing a disservice if we completely ignoredthe lessons learned by the Air Force overthe last ten years – how they interact theirF-22s, specifically with the F-15 and F-16.“In order to take a lot of those lessons

learned, the Hornet Standard Game Planstrives to align our fourth-gen tactics with theAir Force. By doing that we’re on the sameplaying field as their fourth-gen. Now howwe interact with our F-35s is very similar.”This is especially important with the USMC

being first to declare initial operating capability

FusingFUTURE USMC FIGHTER INTEGRATION

Looking to maximise the operational potential of the incoming F-35B

Lightning II, the US Marine Corps is

evolving tactics to integrate its Legacy Hornet fleet with the new fighter, as JoeCopalman reports.




49www.airforcesdaily.com #338 MAY 2016

Fighters For the Future

Main image: The two-seat F/A-18D retains the same combat capabilities as the single-seat A++ and C model Hornets. As Capt Thomas Frey explained, “AD-crew, because there are two people, can be extremely letha l, and in many instances more lethal than a single-seat crew.” Above: Marine maintainershelp a Hornet pilot troubleshoot an aircraft problem on a ‘Silver Eagles’ F/A-18A++ at MCAS Yuma. The work of these Marines is critical in ensuring thatUSMC Hornets are mission- ready. All photos, author

FUTURE USMC FIGHTER INTEGRATION





(IOC) with the F-35. “With the Marine Corpsemploying an extremely capable fifth-genfighter and very capable fourth-gen fighters,it puts us at a level where we could very wellbe the force of choice for a combatant com-mander, specifically for an air-to-air mission.”In addition to facilitating F/A-18 integration

with the F-35, the HSGP also enables improvedcommunication and co-ordination with otherMarine, joint and allied fourth-generationfighters, as well as air- and ground-basedair intercept controllers, through adoptionof a common operational language.Capt Frey explained the benefits: “The joint

and coalition standard is 3-01 intercept control,that’s the format in which they communicate.It’s not just a conversation; it’s very rigid andstructured in how it’s supposed to come out,because it has to be very quick and efficient.The F-35 uses that. We didn’t previously use

that in the marine F-18 community, and nowwe’re moving more towards that 3-01 control.”

Developing the Game PlanWith HSGP seeking to align USMC fighter doctrinewith that of the USAF, MAWTS-1 sought out thelatter’s input in developing new F/A-18 tactics.Given the similar capabilities of the legacy F/A-18and F-16, Capt Frey and his colleagues at MAWTS-1 turned to the Nellis-based 16th WeaponsSquadron (WPS), which oversaw the revision ofF-16 TTPs to facilitate integration with the F-22.He said: “This was effectively us sending

them our tactics manuals and saying, ‘Take afew weeks to read this over and just questionit. Poke holes in our plan. Tell us why you thinkwe should change it, how you’d do things dif-ferently, etc.’ They gave it a good wire-brushingand asked a lot of pertinent questions that Ithink we were asking ourselves. It gave us a

fresh set of eyes on what we previously did.”The 16th WPS made its recommendations

to MAWTS-1 after studying the F/A-18 TTPs.Capt Frey and others then reviewed the 16th’sconclusions, revised them where appropriateto fit USMC priorities and capabilities andthen used them as the basis of the HSGP.

Implementing HSGPAs the source of marine aviation TTPs, MAWTS-1has led the implementation of HSGP into theVMFA community. Currently HSGP is primarilytaught during the Marine Division Tactics Course(MDTC), held twice a year, once at MCAS Beaufort,South Carolina, for east-coast Hornet pilots, andonce at MCAS Miramar, California, for thoseon the west coast. According to Capt Frey:“MDTC is our division-level or four-ship air-to-airschool. It’s where we mainly teach HornetStandard Game Plan, at the four-ship level.”

Above: Capt Daniel Miller, an F-18 instructor pilotwith MAWTS-1, during the anti-air warfare evolutionat WTI. WTI-16 saw eight crews going throughas students – three F/A-18A++/C pilots, and five

F/A-18D aircrews, and was only the second class toteach the Hornet Standard Game Plan.Left: While traditionally associated with air-to-groundmissions, the AN/AAQ-28 Litening pod can be used inthe air-to-air fight to optically track aircraft.Right: The F-35B was the primary driving force be- hind the development of the Hornet Standard GamePlan. The jets from MCAS Yuma regularly trainalongside F/A-18s from MCAS Miramar.

Above: Loaded with dummy AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, an F/A-18C from the recently renamed ‘Crusaders’ of VMFA-122 patrols the skies over the Arizona desertduring a WTI anti-air warfare mission. Inert AIM-7s are carried because there are not enough inert AIM-120s, and instructors want the students to be aware of theadded weight and drag on the Hornet when manoeuvring. Right: A Marine Hornet pilot assigned to VMFA-323 ‘Death Rattlers’ prepares for a training flight. This isone of a dozen deployable F/A-18 squadrons in the USMC.






Marine F/A-18 Air-to-Air Capabilities

THE F/A-18 has shouldered the USMC’s air-to-

air responsibilities since entering service in Janu-

ary 1984. Since then, upgrades have increased

the fleet’s survivability and lethality. Relevant

air-to-air weapon upgrades include the integra-

tion of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range

Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and the AIM-9X in-

frared AAM, weapons representing the standardUSMC F/A-18 counter-air loadout.

Perhaps the most important improvement

came with the F/A-18A++ upgrade in 2010,

which finally saw the capabilities of the F/A-18A

airframes brought up to the same standard as

the F/A-18C/D.

Capt Frey, who flew the F/A-18A++ with VMFA-

314 ‘Black Knights’ before being assigned to

MAWTS-1, outlined the A++ improvements: “It

upgraded a lot of the cockpit and gave us the

Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System [JHMCS],

which basically all our F-18s now have.

“All our F-18s now have Link 16 as well, because

network-centric warfare, especially air-to-air

combat, requires a data link between fighters to

pass information very rapidly. All the operationalMarine Corps’ Hornets are now more or less to

that standard, with Link 16 and JHMCS.”

Another sensor available to USMC F/A-18

crews is the AN/AAQ-28 Litening targeting pod.

Though primarily used for air-to-ground mis-

sions, Litening can be useful in the counter-air

realm as well.

“The Litening pod always had capability in the

air-to-air fight.” Capt Frey explained. “Some

of the stuff that was recently unlocked and

upgraded we can’t necessarily talk about, but

it’s an EO/IR sensor that allows you to track an

airplane in a similar fashion to how you’d track

a tank on the ground, basically enabling you to

use it as you would a radar in a lot of ways.”

With the Marines scheduled to fly the F/A-18until 2029, more updates are on the horizon.

Potential upgrades are discussed once a year

during meetings of the Naval Aviation Require-

ments Group (NARG).

Capt Frey, who attended last year’s NARG on

behalf of the USMC Hornet community, outlined

the purpose of the meetings: “People bring in

their dream-sheet, their wish list – ‘I want to

add this to my aircraft’. That becomes a need

statement from the operator, saying ‘In order to

remain relevant in the future, say five, ten, 15

years down the road for the F-18A through D over

its extended life, I need this capability by 2020 in

order to have a fighting chance.’”

Current items on the USMC F/A-18 wish list

include upgraded mission computers to keep

up with the flow of information coming through

data links, possible radar upgrades, and a fifth-

generation-like cockpit that puts all pertinent

information on a single iPad-type screen.

Marine F-18 pilots rely on the Raytheon AIM-9XSidewinder, which gives them high off-boresightengagement capability.






Graduates of MDTC are taking HSGP back totheir squadrons and disseminating the newtactics, slowly but surely bringing all VMFAs upto the new standards. The HSGP is also beingtaught at MCAS Yuma during the semi-annualWeapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course,where prospective F/A-18 WTIs (PWTIs) learnto implement HSGP in large-force events inco-operation with a broad range of assets fromacross the full spectrum of Marine aviation.“What we focus on at WTI,” Capt Frey said, “is

large-force integration, specifically how youwould actually fight real-world wars. Anythingbelow four-ship is really just a task trainer,just to go out and learn certain procedures.

When you get to WTI, we execute missions.”He added that the HSGP implementation is

going well. “It’s been fairly seamless. WhatI tell everyone when I teach new tactics is: ‘Ididn’t just give you a new airplane. We’re flyingthe same airplane, a lot of your manoeuvres,how you actually stick-and-throttle to controlthe airplane, work your sensors, work yourweapons, are all going to be pretty similar toour previous tactics, but how we interact as fouror more F-18s is going to be much different.’”The specifics of HSGP are classified, but Capt

Frey offered the following ‘wave top’ insights intothe new TTPs. “It uses a lot more manoeuvrewarfare fundamentals to take into account what

the enemy is actually doing. Then, based uponwhat they’re doing, we manoeuvre our forces tocounter them. Previously, we would largely goout and fly scripted tactics, where no matter whatthe enemy did, we generally did x, y and z. Nowwe employ more reactive-type tactics, a moreadvanced manoeuvre warfare-type mentality.”Hornet Standard Game Plan also has USMC

F/A-18 pilots working closely with air interceptcontrollers, either airborne on assets includingthe Boeing E-3 AWACS and Grumman E-2Hawkeye, and in marine tactical air operationscentres, using ground-based radar systems,including the TPS-59 or newer TPS-80.Explaining the benefits of these systems, Capt

The Defence of Yuma – AAW at WTITHE WTI course offers students the unmatched

opportunity to apply theory to practice in a se-

ries of large-force events. The largest air-to-air

evolution, Anti-Air Warfare calls for the defence

of a number of targets in and around Yuma for

a total of eight hours. During WTI 1-16, held

in October 2015, the defenders comprised 12

F/A-18s and four F-35Bs, augmented by five KC-

130J tankers for refuelling and an E-3 AWACS

for intercept control.

The aggressors represented perhaps the

widest array of threat aircraft in any exercise.

They included USAF F-15s and F-16s; USMC

AV-8s, F-5s and F/A-18s; Airborne Tactical

Advantage Hawker Hunters and IAI Kfirs; and

Draken International A-4Ks, each type simulat-

ing a specific real-world fighter/attack threat.

Additionally, B-1s and B-52s simulated bomber

threats, while USMC EA-6Bs and civilian contract

Learjets provided hostile jamming, and USMC

AH-1s, a Mi-24 Hind and an Antonov An-2 Colt

were thrown into the mix as well. Lastly, a trio of

Bede BD-5 Microjets simulated cruise missiles

to challenge the low-altitude air defences. All

told, the defenders faced around 50 adversaries,

although the number of actual aircraft was less

than that, some ‘regenerating’ to fly second or

even third sorties as attackers.


An F/A-18A++ waits to be vectored on to a hostile

contact by an air intercept controller. One compo- nent of the exercise plan was adopting the US AirForce’s air intercept terminology and method ofcommunicating, which is not only efficient and ef- fective, but enables Marine F/A-18s to play a largerair-to-air role in joint and coalition operations.

Above: An FA/-18A++ from VMFA-115‘Silver Eagles’ recovering at NAF ElCentro after a mission in support ofWTI. El Centro often serves as an over- flow airfield for Blue air assets assignedto support MAWTS-1.Left: Hornet students going through the WTIcourse fight against an impressive array of ad- versary aircraft, ranging from fourth-generationfighters such as the F-15 and F-16, to lower- tech threats including the A-4K Skyhawks operated by Draken International and the Antonov

An-2 operated by the Vertol Company.






Frey said: “They see a lot further, generallyspeaking, and 360° by comparison to thefighters, which generally only see off their nose,more or less. So they are telling us what thepicture is over what’s known as the fighter airdirection map. They tell us: ‘The picture isthis, with this many groups and where they’relocated,’ and that basically gives us the bigpicture. From there, we execute our tactics anddirect the employment of firepower, maybe

prioritising certain targets over others.”

Theory into Practice – WTI 1-16The greatest test of new tactics comes twice ayear during the WTI course. During WTI, F/A-18PWTIs participate in a large-force evolution calledAnti-Air Warfare (AAW). It spans three days,including one planning and two execution days,AAW-1 and AAW-2, the first having a three-hourvulnerability (vul) period and the second havinga five-hour vul. During each AAW event, a Blueforce of 12 F/A-18s is tasked with defending aset of assets in and around Yuma from aerialattack by a Red force of roughly 50 aircraft.For WTI 1-16, four F-35s were added to

the Blue force. Outside of WTI, F-35s fromVMFA-121 are integrating with F/A-18s fromMCAS Miramar several times a week, so whilethe scale of the AAW events is certainly out ofthe ordinary, co-operation between F/A-18and F-35 pilots is not. Additionally, USMCand US Army ground-based air defence(GBAD) units aided the blue force, attackingaggressor aircraft that penetrated the jointengagement zone, just as would happen in areal-world defensive counter-air situation.Regarding the execution of the AAW evolution,

Capt Frey said: “It was very successful. Therewere a lot of lessons learned, but overall,the students had mission success, whichis pretty impressive considering it was aneight-hour overall vulnerability window, andthey protected those assets for eight hours. Ican definitely say that without the F-35, thereprobably would have been a substantially lowerlikelihood that we would have had missionsuccess. So the integration of the F-35s withF/A-18s just made the mission great, andincreased the likelihood of success.”

Best of Both WorldsIN LESS than a year since its implementation,

HSGP cemented a close, mutually beneficial

working relationship between the USMC F/A-18

and F-35 communities. Capt Frey said: “When

we interact with F-35 and F/A-18s, we always

talk in terms of capacity and capability. It’s very

simple. The F-35 is a more capable platform than

the F/A-18. But it lacks capacity in terms of the

quantity of weapons it can carry and because we

only have one IOC’d squadron.

“So the Hornet fills the gap. Although its lacks

a little bit of the capability, it fills that capacity

gap. Through network-centric warfare we’re

able to receive a little of their capability by the

passing information over data link.

“The F/A-18 has always given great situational

awareness to the pilot, but now that we’re inte-

grating with the F-35 and we have the ability to

share information with them, it’s just phenom-

enal. While I don’t have onboard abilities like

the F-35 has, when we integrate with them I

can get a lot of good information.”In any prospective near-peer fight, that ability

to receive vital information quickly, as facilitated

by HSGP, may prove to be critical to the USMC’s

success.

afm

Nose-on witha US MarineCorps F-18.

future usmc fighter integration

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