Air guardians

RIMPAC 2008: Combat jet pilots test their skills

Since the beginning of the month, 30 Hawaii Air National Guard F-15 jet fighter pilots have had new "opponents" to attack, training with Navy and Canadian aviators during the Rim of the Pacific exercise.

"It's been about a 50-50 split," said Maj. Brian "Punchy" Kilty, who flew F-18 Hornet jets for the Navy until he joined the Hawaii Air Guard in 2004. "We take turns. We play the role of aggressors sometimes, and then we switch roles."

Both the Navy and the Canadians fly F-18 Hornets, while the Hawaii Air National Guard's 199th Squadron maintains a fleet of 20 F-15 Eagles that it hopes to trade in two years for the more lethal and stealthlike F-22 Raptors. The Navy's Hornets belong to Air Wing 5, assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.

"It's a building-block approach," added Kilty. "We begin with smaller engagements like one-on-one dogfights and end with an aerial exercise with a large force deployment."

That will happen on July 25 in the airspace over the Pacific Ocean north of Kauai. The scenario calls for each side to launch 16 combat jets.

"We will have to fight our way to launch a simulated attack on Kauai and then fight our way back to friendly lines," Kilty said.

Kilty, 41, recalled flying in a RIMPAC exercise in 1994, when he was an F-18 pilot on the carrier USS Nimitz.

Participating in these RIMPAC naval war games are 150 foreign aircraft, including the Navy's F-18 Hornets, the six from Canada and the Hawaii Air National Guard's F-15 Eagles. Other RIMPAC forces include 20 U.S. Navy warships, 13 foreign ships and three foreign submarines.

More than 20,400 military personnel from the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, the Netherlands, Peru, South Korea, United Kingdom and Singapore will conclude the naval exercise July 31.

RIMPAC will give the Canadian F-18 aviators their first chance to fire missiles. Besides the F-18 jets, Canada sent two frigates -- HMCS Regina and HMCS Ottawa -- along with 150 soldiers, two Aurora patrol planes, a refueling tanker and a Sea King helicopter to the exercise.

For Capt. Andrew "Deuce" Fessenden, 33, this summer's RIMPAC is his first. He transferred to the Hawaii Air Guard's 199th Fighter Squadron 13 months ago from the Massachusetts Air National Guard's 102nd Fighter Squadron.

Fessenden, whose civilian job is working as a pilot for Island Air, said Hawaii Air Guard, Canadian and Kitty Hawk aviators have been flying two training missions daily on weekdays. Each can last as long as 90 minutes.

Kilty said that RIMPAC gives newer pilots like Fessenden "the opportunity to fight against different types of aircraft."

Kilty said the exercise also helps U.S. junior officers foster and develop friendships: "The big part of exercise is to bring these countries and people together and to build relations and get good training."