95th FS participates in Combat Hammer

Published May 27, 2014
By Airman 1st Class Sergio A. Gamboa
325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Twelve F-22 Raptors and more than 200 Tyndall Airmen participated in Combat Hammer, a Weapons System Evaluation Program, May 10 to 22 at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Raptor pilots and maintenance members from the 95th Fighter Squadron performed their duties at the Utah Test and Training range. Tyndall exercised with other Air Force bombers and fighters in loading and dropping munitions in realistic combat scenarios.

"Combat Hammer is an evaluation of the performance of air-to-ground weapons," said Maj. Mark Donohue, 95th FS director of operations.
During the exercise, participating members, including Team Tyndall maintainers and pilots, were evaluated on how well they performed.

"Operations and maintenance were evaluated on the quality of building, loading, mission planning and ultimately, employing the bombs against a wide variety of targets," Donohue said. "Basically, Combat Hammer is an evaluation from beginning to end on how Team Tyndall did as a whole."

The training is a glimpse into real combat, said Donohue.

"It's invaluable for the Airmen," Donohue added. "We have pilots in the squadron that haven't dropped a weapon. One of the primary missions of Combat Hammer is to give the 'first-time dropper' the proper training so he or she has the experience and confidence in employing weapons before they might be in actual combat."

The 95th FS was just recently reactivated.

"Now that we [95th FS] have achieved our initial operational capability, we could be tasked to provide aircraft to support any contingency operation across the world," added Donohue. "This trip to Hill allowed us to exercise our operational capability by executing many of the things we would do in a real deployment."

Having been to Combat Hammer before, Donohue expressed what he got out of it.

"I personally think this is a great opportunity," he said. "It allows our younger pilots to gain comfort and expertise in employing the weapons and allows the maintainers to practice loading weapons-- something they would be doing in combat daily. Ultimately, this exercise showcased the hard work and dedication of our maintainers and pilots."
Eliminating any apprehension from pilots and maintainers is a vital part of the program.

"We have a young Air Force, and this will be the first opportunity for most Airmen to see a bomb and watch it employ," said Capt. Scott Crowell, 95th FS chief of mobility. "The first time I did Combat Hammer was right before my first deployment, and it was a confidence builder that helped me in Afghanistan. It prepared me, and hopefully it will prepare our unit if we were to go to combat."

This is the first temporary duty assignment for members of the 95th FS and 95th AMU, and it was extremely successful as they had a 100 percent weapons release rate.

The 95th FS mission is to project unrivaled combat power supporting national military objectives and Combatant Command requirements through strategic application of fifth generation air dominance fighter aircraft and personnel.

F-22 Arrival