As the T-38 marks its 50th year, Combat Aircraft details this popular trainer and its current role, and looks ahead to the future and its potential replacement.
report and photos: Jamie Hunter/Aviacom
On April 10, 2009 the USAF marked the 50th anniversary of the T-38 Talon's first flight, a remarkable milestone for an aircraft that has provided sterling service. Maj Gen Greg Feest, commander of the 19th AF, commented: 'The T-38 has been the backbone for training Air Force aviators of the past and the present, and undoubtedly it will continue to produce the best pilots in the world for many years to come'.
The T-38 dates back to 1956, when Northrop won a USAF contract to develop an advanced supersonic jet trainer. The first YT-38 made its maiden flight on April 10, 1959 and Northrop went on to build 1,187 T-38s between 1959 and 1972. Nearly half of those are still flying today and the aircraft are getting weary despite a series of incremental upgrades. Today's upgraded T-38Cs in service with the USAF's Air and Education Training Command (AETC) are operating well beyond their original design specifications. Intended to fly 7,000 hours, the typical T-38C has now logged 15,000 hours. By 2017, the flight hours will be up to 17,500.
Commander of the 435th FTS 'Deadly Black Eagles' at Randolph AFB, Texas, is Lt Col Bruce 'Smut' Smith. 'Pilot training starts on T-6 Texan II and then splits; pilots for heavies go to the T-1 Jayhawk, while fighter pilots, bomber pilots, and FAIPs (First Assignment Instructor Pilots) head for the T-38. After their initial flying training on the T-38 the pilots tracking to fighters come to IFF as a bridge course, flying the AT-38C. We teach them the basics of how to be a fighter pilot; how to brief a mission, how to fly the basics of air to air and air to surface sorties, how to run the communications correctly, how to fly tight formation references and those types of disciplines'.
Former F-15E Strike Eagle pilot Maj Mike 'Sammy' Pelletier is the assistant director of operations (ADO), and a highly-experienced instructor, at the 435th FTS. 'IFF is all about preparing these new pilots for a fighter squadron. We teach them offensive and defensive basic fighter maneuvers (BFM), air combat maneuvers (ACM) with 2v1 set ups for those going to F-15C and F-22, surface attack, and surface attack tactics (SAT). The SAT element came direct from the A-10 community and the current mission in Afghanistan. It involves us teaching the students conventional and pop up patterns on the range as well as low level navigation and forward air controller (FAC) simulation with the instructor talking the student onto targets. All instructors here are qualified to do everything except the ACM and SAT elements, which are new missions for us. We treat our students as we would our wingmen. It's a serious business much as it is at a front line fighter squadron. Our briefings and debriefings are very professional, yet brutally honest. Once the door closes the gloves come off and we nit pick everything from a late check in on the radio to being slightly out of position in the formation.
'The IFF program ranges from 16-20 missions and is generally a six-week course. Our A-Track is for F-15C students, B-Track is for dual role F-15E and F-16, C-Track is for A-10, D-Track is for WSOs going onto Strike Eagle. E-Track is our latest course and is for F-22 Raptor. We have one or two E-Track course for the F-22 each year and we are getting the cream of the crop from the T-38 pilot training bases. Typically, 8-10 new pilots start the course and at the end they will be evaluated and assessed to give us four pilots that make it to Raptor. The decision on their fate lies with the 19th AF commander, but if they don't get the prized Raptor cockpit they will be streamed off onto other front line USAF fighters.
Replacing the Talon
The reason the T-38 has soldiered on for 50 years is testament to its great design, and that it a hugely costly process to replace an entire jet trainer fleet of the scale the USAF demands. There comes a time when buying new outweighs the advantages of upgrading. That time may not have come for the T-38 just yet, but the writing is on the wall. A series of single point failure fatigue issues is one of a number of factors that has lead senior USAF officers towards favoring a whole new aircraft. Aileron lever problems lead to crash in May 2008 that saw AETC subsequently halt all T-38 flight operations in order to inspect 546 aircraft. Suspect ailerons were replaced and AETC commander Gen Stephen Lorenz ordered that 32 T-38s should be dismantled and inspected (two active airframes and 30 drawn from AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB). An astonishing 156 items were found to be likely single point failures. So now AETC is monitoring its fleet very closely and is accelerating plans to retire the T-38 and have a new trainer coming online by 2017.
THE FULL VERSION OF THIS FEATURE APPEARS IN COMBAT AIRCRAFT MONTHLY Vol 11.1 JANUARY 2010 ISSUE