HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – This year, Airmen from the active duty 388th and Reserve 419th Fighter Wings completed an historic F-35A Lightning II deployment to the Central Command area of responsibility where they participated in Operation Rough Rider and Operation Midnight Hammer, among others.
During the deployment – which began in March of this year – pilots, maintainers and support personnel made up the 34th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. They were deployed to an undisclosed location in the Middle East, and conducted agile combat employment operations, flying from several bases in the region.
“The rapid nature of this deployment, the operations carried out, and the duration, demonstrated not only the capabilities of our Airmen, but of the F-35 as a platform,” said Col. Charles Fallon, 388th Fighter Wing commander.
In March, the squadron was deployed on a short-notice Immediate Response Force Tasking.
“We got out the door very, very quickly,” said Lt. Col. Aaron Osborne, 34th Fighter Squadron commander. “Within 24 hours of being in theater, we were flying the F-35 in combat missions against Houthi targets.”
Operation Rough Rider’s objective was to “disintegrate” the capabilities of the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen. During the operation, pilots from the 34th FS contributed to strikes that destroyed air defense systems, command and control facilities, weapons storage facilities, surface-to-air missile and ballistic missile capabilities.
They also recorded the first air-to-air kills from an F-35A against one-way attack drones.
“This is the first time anyone has been shot at in 20 years – actually carrying out the Wild Weasel mission. It’s the first time we’re carrying novel weapons on the F-35, bombing into tunnels, double-tapping targets with deep-penetration weapons,” Osborne said.
In June, the 34th was called upon to escort a strike package, including B-2 Spirit bombers, into Iran’s contested airspace to strike underground nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan during Operation Midnight Hammer.
On June 22 a formation of F-35s flown by 388th Fighter Wing pilots were the first aircraft to penetrate Iranian airspace, suppressing enemy air defenses and escorting the B-2s to the target areas. The operation called for precise timing and fearless flying from tanker crews and other fourth and fifth generation fighter aircraft that were part of the strike package.
“Our weapons officer was the overall mission commander,” Osborne said. “We employed weapons to great effect against surface-to-air missile sites… while they were trying to target us with some very high high-end systems and they were just unable to. … It was cool to see the jet detect and defeat things – to watch it do exactly what it was designed to do.”
The formation of F-35s were the last to leave. They were never fired upon. But, upon their return, they were prepared for retaliation.
“From that point forward, we’re operating under alarm yellow and alarm red conditions, dispersing aircraft and people, expecting ballistic missile attacks, preparing for casualties and medical evacuations. It was wild,” Osborne said.
Throughout the deployment, the squadron learned and grew together. Young pilots, with no combat experience were leading mission planning cells by the end of the deployment. Experienced maintainers, taking young maintainers under their wing and showing them how to carry out the mission at a high level in a combat environment – also sharing their knowledge with other F-35 squadrons, as an established unit in the community, Osborne said.
“To see the squadron grow and get to a spot where the Airmen are comfortable living and working in a place where you're being shot at and still be experts … to watch SAM launches happen (during Rough Rider) and see guys go toward it and jump on their targets. It was impressive to see,” Osborne said.