Posted on 11/14/2006 6:22:54 AM PST by snowrip
Air Force Declassifies Elite Aggressor Program US Air Force Nov 14, 2006 - 5:50:45 AM
WASHINGTON: After decades of secrecy, Air Force officials acknowledged Nov. 13 that Communist-built fighters were flown at the Tonopah Test Range northwest of Las Vegas, Nev.
From 1977 through 1988, the program, known as Constant Peg, saw Air Force, Navy and Marine aircrews flying against Soviet-designed MiG fighters as part of a training program where American pilots could better learn how to defeat or evade the Communist bloc's fighters of the day.
Brig. Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the 3rd Wing commander at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, is a former member of the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron and remembers the valuable training the unit provided.
"CONSTANT PEG afforded pilots an opportunity to learn how to fight enemy aircraft in a controlled, safe environment without having to endure the risks of actual air combat," said General Carlisle. "Typically a pilot would start with a basic familiarization flight to observe the enemy airplane and study its characteristics, practicing one-on-one defensive and offensive maneuvers against it, and finally, experience multi-bogey engagements high over the desert scrubland of the Nellis Air Force Base ranges."
As a result of marginal performance of American fighter forces in the skies over North Vietnam, Constant Peg complemented other revolutionary training programs such as Red Flag and Top Gun, and the Air Force and Navy-Marine aggressor squadrons. The program also was intended to eliminate the "buck fever" or nervous excitement many pilots experience on their first few combat missions. Historical experience indicated that pilots who survived their first ten missions were much more likely to survive a complete combat tour, and Constant Peg was intended to teach them the right "moves" to enable them to come out on top of any engagement.
The end of the Constant Peg nearly coincided with the end of the Cold War, by which time some of its graduates already had proven themselves in actual air combat.
Threat aircraft flown by the Red Eagles spanned several decades and technical generations of capability. There was the MiG-17 Fresco, a small, agile single-seat transonic fighter placed in service just after the Korean War and used extensively over Vietnam and the Middle East; the MiG-21 Fishbed, a high supersonic fighter used world-wide in large numbers, and the swing-wing MiG-23 Flogger, likewise in global service, an attempt by the Soviets to match the sophisticated capabilities of the F-4 Phantom.
"Although it came too late to influence Vietnam, Constant Peg training greatly influenced the success of American Airmen in Desert Storm, who shot down 40 Iraqi fighters, many of which were Fishbeds and Floggers," said General Carlisle.
Hopefully a few of the planes will make it to the museum at Wright-Pat. I saw a Mig-29 at the Cleveland National Air Show right after Yeltsin crushed the coup attempt, the Sovs couldn't run an economy for squat but they built some nice aircraft.
-Eric
I sat next to an aeronautical engineer on a flight from Moscow to Yekaterinburg on a Tupolev 134 back in June - he crossed himself fervently before takeoff.
I said "shouldn't you be confident, since you know what went into building this plane?"
In broken English, he said "I'm praying because I know what went into building this plane."
No big secret within military aviation circles and enthusiasts. I think that there were some pictures of MiGs taken from a distance out on "Freedom Ridge" near Groom Lake back in the late 1980s, and I know that there was once a picture out some time ago of a disassembled Soviet bomber (with its Red Star emblazoned tail stabilizer poking out from under the tarps) being trucked out west from Louisiana.
No kidding. I was at Hahn Air Base as a maintenance officer from 87-89 and I knew about Constant Peg.
Not really a secret.
Saw these all the time on the ground at Holloman AFB while working at White Sands on the Shuttle in the early 80's.
God Bless the late Colonel Moody Sutter, USAF and all he did in support of this program and similar efforts all the way back to when he helped with the debriefing of Sovet MIG Pilot Victor Belinko. His vision in suggesting the establishment of Red Flag and the 64th Aggressor Squadron was largely overlooked for many years.
Now that Dems are in charge, such programs will be verboten. it would give us anunfair advantageif we didn't give our best fighters to the enemy for similar practice.
And I got up every morning and drove to the top of Angel Peak to sit on a UPA-35 radar scope and use those radios to control the Aggressors on the range when they were still flying Lizard T-38's. I was sitting there when Nick Hobbie saved a bird after the seat's butt slapper inadvertently deployed on the pilot in the front sit. The next week we went to Luke and I was sitting on the scope when "knock-it-off" was called but the F-4 pilot missed the call and ran over Nick's T-38, killing he and the two in the F-4.
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