Pilots from the 388th Fighter Wing's 421st Fighter Squadron, flying the F-35A Lightning II in Bamboo Eagle 25-1, are gaining vital experience with every sortie.
Bamboo Eagle, a U.S. Air Force Warfare Center exercise, stretches force elements and command-and-control structures to several "hub and spoke" locations across the Western United States. Naval Air Station North Island is serving as a "spoke" location for the F-35.
Each day for the squadron brings a new challenge. Exercise "injects" and tasking orders determine the flow of the busy flying day.
"Other exercises can get our pilots used to working with others through the fog and friction of war, but not at the size and tempo of Bamboo Eagle," said Lt. Col. Bryan Mussler 421st FS commander. "We've got pilots taking off, tasked with missions they weren't expecting, for much longer than they were expecting, and landing somewhere they weren't expecting. The unpredictability built into this exercise gives us a realistic look at what the fight will be like."
While much is uncertain about what the day may bring, the goal remains the same here: put in the work required to win.
"We're trying to get somewhere between standard training and combat experience," Mussler said. "Our day-to-day training at home station is very low risk compared to the actual fight. Bamboo Eagle helps us bridge that gap to combat, so when that night comes, we are confident with what we're being tasked to do."
For the F-35A pilots during Bamboo Eagle, much of that mission is offensive and defensive counter-air, escorting other assets and hunting down the enemy surface-to-air threats. That's the F-35's "bread and butter" mission, Mussler said.
In addition to the combat scenarios, the exercise is improving the squadron's airmanship - piloting a single-engine fighter over the Eastern Pacific Ocean for great amounts of time and distance, meeting up with multiple tankers, navigating unfamiliar airspace and landing on different airfields.
"We have new F-35 pilots who have been with the squadron for two months and they've refueled more this week than they ever have before, and in conditions they never have before," Mussler said. "We're hundreds of miles out over the ocean, and you can't simulate that feeling."
These opportunities provided other positive impacts for the squadron this week.
"This makes it real for a lot of them," Mussler said. "That realism is also motivating them, and they are actually having a lot of fun - solidifying that camaraderie we're going to need in combat."
