The Air Force is reviving its storied “William Tell” aerial shooting competition with a watch on the Pacific, because the service renews its concentrate on air-to-air combat after many years of ground warfare.
It’s been 19 years because the Air Force last convened the biennial air-to-air weapons meet, which began within the early days of the Cold War in 1954.
The competition is known as for the legend of William Tell, a 14th-century Swiss farmer who — as the story goes — had to fireside an arrow so accurately that it could knock an apple from his son’s head, lest they each be killed for insulting the Austrian Habsburg empire.
For many years, the shootout provided a stage for ambitious fighter pilots to point out off their skills for bragging rights, a trophy and the title of “Top Gun.”
The Air Force has held only one William Tell competition within the 27 years because it paused the regular meets in 1996. The event reconvened for its fiftieth anniversary in 2004, before the War on Terror spurred a 19-year hiatus.
Now with U.S. forces out of Afghanistan and a substantially smaller footprint in Iraq and Syria, the Air Force is popping its attention to a faster-paced, more complex type of air war.
This yr’s William Tell, slated for Sept. 11-15 at Savannah Air National Guard Base in Georgia, will reflect military competition within the Indo-Pacific — namely, the U.S.-China rivalry — posed by savvier enemy pilots, high-tech jets and advanced anti-aircraft artillery.
F-35 Lightning II, F-22 Raptor and F-15 Eagle units will go head-to-head in a gauntlet of simulated air combat scenarios, weapons loading, maintenance and weapons director competitions.
Fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft will act because the adversarial “red team,” Air Combat Command spokesperson Mike Reeves told Air Force Times. It’s unclear whether William Tell will usher in the Air Force’s red air contractors like Top Aces and Textron subsidiary ATAC, which fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon and Mirage F1 jets, or turn to drone targets just like the remote-controlled QF-16s.
Pilots will likely be tested on their offensive and defensive prowess against simulated enemy air forces, and on how well they maneuver when an adversary aircraft is in sight.
“There will likely be a heritage event with live air-to-air gun employment against a towed banner,” Reeves said. “There may even be … weapons loading, command and control, and intelligence competitions.”
Wings across Air Combat Command and Pacific Air Forces are allowed to send teams of 10 to 14 airmen, depending on the style of aircraft. Each team needs one captain, an aircrew of as much as eight people, two intelligence airmen and three weapons loaders. Command-and-control wings can even send three members apiece to participate.
Participants will compete for individual and team awards. The group that best thinks outside the box in collaborating with other jets will likely be crowned the highest “fighter integration team,” to point out that the aircraft are “most lethal when used as a cohesive fighting force,” Reeves said.
Planners hope the resurgence of William Tell will help prepare airmen for real-life combat operations within the Indo-Pacific, where they may face off against Chinese jets just like the J-16 fighter that buzzed an American RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance plane on May 26.
The U.S. considers China its top strategic threat and has pledged to guard Taiwan, the autonomous island nation that Beijing claims as its own territory, if China were to invade.
“Our unwavering commitment to air dominance stays steadfast,” Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark Kelly said in a release. “We reiterate our steadfast dedication to maintaining control of the skies in support of our joint force and multinational partners.”
Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), the Washington Post, and others.