We're at Northern Lightning 2023 . Uh
What that is for us , we brought six
airplanes uh and about a dozen pilots ,
about 100 ish total stingers from the
1/80 out here to participate in 1/4 5th
gen air to air air to ground exercise ,
to really refine uh integration tactics
in a joint environment at home will
typically train to our specific 16
tactics . Here , we get to fly
alongside F-35s from the Marine Corps
and the Air Force against a variety of
different threats and adversaries . So
we get to practice our piece of that
puzzle at home . But here we get to put
it together in the joint environment ,
practice with other services , other
aircraft , the way we would actually do
it for real . You know , you can see
the difference between an F-16 that
ours that were purchased by the Air
Force in the late eighties and those
F-35 sitting out there that are mostly
purchased in the mid 2010 . So one of
those aircraft is built to be very
stealthy , the F-35 and ours is not .
So there's a lot of things that those
airplanes can do that we can't , uh and
vice versa . We get to come and
practice here and play off of each
other's strengths and weaknesses
because there's a lot of complicated
mission sets that we would encounter in
the real world that we require their
help to be successful . But there's a
lot of things that we bring to the
fight that , you know , augments the
capabilities of an F-35 as well . The
scenarios we have built are really
difficult and sometimes it can be
challenging to find a good fit for 1/4
gen asset . Uh When we're talking about
the types of threats we are fighting .
I believe the 1/80 has performed really
well . I think , uh , you know , from
the pilot perspective , they've ,
they've flown really well . I think
they've had to face some really tough
problems that even in the F-35 , we
consider hard problems so made even
more difficult uh in the F-16 . And yet
they've persevered through it from a
maintenance perspective . I think
they've done really well for soy
production . Uh We haven't had any
Toledo aircraft fall out of the bowl ,
which is really uh big to make sure we
get all our training required with
everyone up in the air . It's been
outstanding when we deploy to a combat
zone , they're going to be expected to
perform everything that they've been
trained to do . And here they get to
practice it that way in that type of
setting , knowing how to turn the
wrench and do the job correctly . Keeps
our aircraft fully mission capable and
being ready to meet the mission at all
times helps us defeat our adversaries
that way . You know , we have great
maintainers and I'm , I'm , I expected
nothing but great maintenance from them
and they've done great . I think there ,
there aren't plans for the F-16 to go
away any time in the , in the near
future . So these airplanes are gonna
be flying for a while . The , the ones
we have in Toledo are honestly probably
the best F-16s that exist anywhere
thanks to our maintenance and just how
well these jets are taken care of . You
know , we have a specific set of
capabilities that are still very
relevant to the fight and you know , we ,
we fit into that puzzle pretty well
still .