General James B. Hecker, US Air Force, Shares Insights on Ukraine F-16 Training and More

This July 30 General James B. Hecker, Commander, US Air Forces in Europe; Commander, US Air Forces Africa; Commander, Allied Air Command and Director, Joint Air Power Competence Centre, Kalkar, Germany participated in the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Aerospace Nation series. The multi-hatted commander provided attention-getting insights on the contemporary operating environment inside his area of responsibility, Ukrainian Air Force F-16 training and one instance of the increasing scope and rigor of multi-national exercises.

General Hecker’s shared insights with program viewers from the vantage point of “being responsible for every inch of NATO.” The commander then noted how this responsibility has quickly evolved. “We keep expanding so there are a lot more inches in there now. Unfortunately, the threat is a lot different than it was two-and-one-half years ago. [For example] We have a bunch of cheap, one-way UAVs that are being created and are becoming more and more sophisticated. That becomes an issue on how we shoot those things down – that is no easy task.”

Benefits of Shared Vectors

NATO nations and their partners are increasing interoperability through their procurement of common air weapons platforms – F-35s, MQ-9s, F-16s and Eurofighters. By extension, this procurement thrust allows air forces to gain operational commonality in Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs).

Hecker noted “that by 2032 we will have over 700 F-35s here in theatre between the NATO nations….and only 54 will be US.” Beyond numbers, the presence of common air platforms in allied and partner nations’ air orders of battle could conceptually allow the services to return to the Cold War-era construct of “combat turns.” Under this strategy, one nation’s aircraft could land at another European partner’s base and expect to receive common weapons, maintenance and other fleet support .

The commander also called attention to the benefits from Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Hecker said, “They will be a huge asset when it comes to sharing TTPs concerning completing agile combat employment (ACE), landing on highways and all those things they have actually achieved,” and added, “This is really going to open up some capabilities that they have to offer when it comes to equipment and some TTPs, when it comes to ACE. They have other assets that are going to help out.”

for somebody who was trained by the Russians years ago.” The migration to Western training takes time. “A seven-month course on how to fly an F-16 isn’t going to change that culture overnight. And we’ve seen that with other former Eastern Block countries that are members of NATO.” The commander noted NATO and its partners have “hacked the clock,” starting the transition to Western TTPs, Western doctrine and Western equipment. “And they will be much better off – a much better supporter and partner once they mature with all these capabilities we are giving them.” He cautioned Ukraine’s transition to the Western training readiness culture will “not be overnight. We’re talking half a decade, a decade to get to that point. We’ve started the clock and that’s a great start!”

Reflections on Astral Night 2024

The recently concluded Astral Night 2024 focused on exercising Integrated Air and Missile Defense and the incremental development of theater-wide security capabilities. Lithuania, Poland, the UK and the US provided more than 50 aircraft. Denmark and Greece provided observers. If this US European Command capstone exercise is an indicator, the rigor of training in that theatre is increasing in different missions. General Hecker recalled, “We were able to take the Air Command Battle Network and share US ‘feeds’ with Polish feeds, with the Baltic feeds and get that altogether for one common operating picture. We were able to pass off for the first time, that I know of, the regional air defense command to Poland.” While noteworthy accomplishments and firsts were recorded during this exercise a number of lessons learned were also generated. “There were tons of lessons learned: we need to do more training; and we need to do more of this and that. ACE – we got some good lessons learned on training when it came to moving the aircraft around that were there in a defensive role to protect different things,” he added.

On Our Watch List

MS&T will continue to monitor and comment on the increasing pace and scope of training readiness activities in this and other theatre of operations.