I was a Weapons Controller in the Air Force. One time I got to control Israeli fighters. They came to Hill AFB Utah around 2002 or so. They had Israeli controllers with them and we swapped for some of the missions. US versus IDF. VERY cool. I was so pumped. It was gonna be so cool. “I’m gonna control Israeli fighters!”
NOBODY was as thrilled as I was. People looked at me like I was nuts.
We were going to do a 2V4 Opposed SAT. (Two Israeli F16s defend a ground target in the Utah Target Test Range “The UTTR” and four US F16s ingress from the north to do a surface attack on what the Israelis are defending. Real air to surface bombs. GBU-12’s mostly. Nothing in the center of Utah but salt flats for the most part. No real air to air missiles or guns.)
In this particular type of mission the Israelis were playing “red”. (Bad guys.) Two guys in each of the IDF F16’s.
Now… Red air normally gets restrictions put on them to act as a training aid. This is normal for any red air. They’re given “hand cuffs” we call them. They can’t react defensive until a certain range, they can’t have radar guided missiles, heat seeker only. Stuff like that. So, in this case, the Israelis weren’t allowed to “unleash the fury” and go Joshua on these US Blue air guys.
In other missions during their visit they did but I wasn’t on any of those. They did them with their Israeli controllers. Oh, well.
So I get into the briefing. The flight lead is briefing us all up the plans and the different threat presentations the Blue air Instructor pilot wants to see. (It’s all about the training for guys in the Blue side flight. It might be for training the number two guy in the Blue side for his four ship flight lead up grade (FLUG) or maybe an eval. Plus training for target practice in the range. They have junked trucks and fake buildings out there. The whole point is not just to dog fight but work with the radar, call the “picture”, lock the weapons… on the right guy, and go in for a ground attack with accuracy.
So, me and the Israelis are all talking about how to help out. VERY cool. I felt like asking them for their autographs.
We break up and they step to their jets and I go to the range squadron and get a scope and set up my radios and load in the bullseye. I have their comm card with all the frequencies and I call FAA and get their squawks from their flight plans.
I’m next to the flightline so I hear them take off. They should be out to the range in ten minutes. I’m ready. They get handed off to me by the range controller. We do a comm check. We’re hearing each other loud and clear and they proceed to their marshal point. Blue air enters the airspace and go to their marshal point. Everybody’s ready, the Blue air flight lead calls “Fight’s On”.
Okay, Fight’s On means the war has started. I start calling the picture. “Warrior copies fight’s on. Single group, bullseye 265/30 miles pushing south, Hostile.” ...pause... “Hostile group heavy, four contacts, line abreast, twenty thousand.”
This is how it’s done in the Air Force, Navy and Marines. Wherever fighters are involved. It’s all standard with US and NATO and Israel works the same way.
There are “phases” to this:
Initial: I’m doing the majority of the talking on the frequency. My radar can see 250 miles. The F16’s have an unclassified range of around 30 miles. Outside that range they’re listening to me as I tell them what the bad guys are doing.
Target: Target phase the fights are starting to see the bad guys on their radar. I start shutting up. Here the flight lead starts deciding what he’s going to do.
Sorted: The flight lead is now in charge of the picture. I shut up. He’s got it. Rookie controllers keep talking. The pros know when it’s time to let the fight lead do his job. He assigns which one of his flight is going to go after which bad guy. When you’re assigned a guy to go after you are “sorted”. If I see a guy going after the wrong guy he was sorted to, I can be a hero by pointing out his correct guy.
Post attack: That phase is after the bad guys have exploded. I might give a call to say if any more bad guys are around. If there aren’t any I say the picture is “clean”.
This part is where the fighters normally go hit the targets in the range and the Red air aggressors “kill remove” to set up for another presentation.
So… We have called Fight’s On. I’m sprewing the bogey dope. The Israeli flight lead is saying, “Copy.”
That’s all he ever keeps saying. Just… Copy.
We’re closing in, 30 miles, 20 miles… I’m not hearing a darn thing. Is he sorted yet? Has he got the engagement? Where are we at? I don’t know. All’s he keeps saying back is, “Copy”.
Then I start hearing the Blue Air controller start passing kill calls. Kill my number two guy. Then kill my number one guy.
The Israeli flight lead just goes, “Copy kill.” And removes off to the north to let the Blue air go hit the range.
I was like dumbfounded. What in the world was that? I had no idea if I helped in that or hurt. I mean, yes. I said the Red air is hand cuffed but that doesn’t mean “helpless”. One of the training objectives of Red air is to, “Punish Blue mistakes.” That means that if the student or the flight lead in Blue air is being stupid and you got him in your weapons engagement zone (WEZ)… By all means, shoot the dummy down. My job is to be of some help there, y’know.
So, Blue air bombs the baby milk factory and egresses out. We’re getting ready for the next set up. I get the idea that I can listen in on their inter-flight freq. I have their comm card so I dial it in to my VHF radio. (Control is on UHF. Inter-flight between the flight in on a VHF freq.)
We call fights on and I’m calling the picture again and listening to the inter-flight. Guess what?
They’re talking between themselves in Hebrew!
Now, like I said. The job of the experienced major league controller is this beautiful ballet of knowing what the pilot is doing and seeing and gracefully passing off the authority of the battle to him as he gets the better situational awareness.
But what phase are we in with this engagement in Hebrew!?
I was upset. I was depressed. I got to play on the court with the IDF and I had no idea if they were laughing at me in Hebrew about “That annoying American on the radio who won’t shut up.”
We finished. Everyone RTBed. And then we all got back to the squadron for the de-brief.
We all sat in the room. They played back the HUD tapes and reconstructed the whole mission on a dry erase board.
Then the Blue air flight lead cleared us off to de-brief amongst ourselves while they graded their air to surface targeting.
Me and the Israeli’s got into a separate room and I said, “So… Did I help? Did I hurt? How did I do?”
The flight lead goes, “Oh, you do good.”
Pause.
I said, “Really? I didn’t talk too much? Was I telling you what you needed to know?”
He goes, “Oh, yeah. Sure.” And then he goes to talking to the other guys something in Hebrew.
“Cause, y’know… I was afraid I might’ve been over doing it there. I really didn’t know if you were sorted or locked or going to maneuver…”
One of the other guys in the flight says something in Hebrew to the flight lead and he says, “No. You do good job. No complains."
It was… Anti climactic.
Either way, we all stood up to leave the briefing room and we were walking down the hall and, as I said, these guys were like rock stars to me. I was still in the mood to flirt with them. I mentioned how I’d love to see Israel. They just kinda nodded, “Uh huh.”
I asked how they were liking America and then they all mentioned how they were eager to finish up their visit because they planned to pack out of billeting and get on the road to the four hour drive to Las Vegas. “Woohoo… Las Begas!”It just reminded me that though the dry bones are standing, they don’t have “The Breath” in them yet, (Ezekiel 37:3-14).
And that’s my story of how I got to work with the Israeli Defense Force.
The End.
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