F-16 delivery highlights AFAFRICA-Morocco partnership

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stefanie Torres
  • 17th Air Force Public Affairs
The Royal Moroccan Air Force recently received the first four of 24 F-16 Fighting Falcons, and senior U.S. military officials celebrated the delivery with their Moroccan partners during a ceremony here Aug. 4, 2011.

The delivery was the latest milestone in a partnership that has grown in recent years. Air Forces Africa, the air component command of U.S. Africa Command, has been strengthening cooperation with Moroccan forces since its activation in October 2008.

"We have a wonderful relationship with the Moroccan Air Force, but being able to fly the same airplane will just increase our opportunity to work together," said AFAFRICA Commander Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, adding the acquisition was "strategically important to the Royal Moroccan Air Force in their modernization program."

A state partnership program through the Utah Air National Guard has also solidified the relationship, with multiple engagements taking place in 2011. The Air Force has shared expertise with the RMAF in the areas of medical, engineering, disaster preparedness, and related exercises on the African continent.

However, because the Utah ANG does not have F-16s, they enlisted support through the South Carolina ANG, which flies a F-16 fleet strikingly similar, explained Lt. Col. Scott Lambe, 169th Operations Support Flight commander with the SCANG.

"We have 24 F-16s in our fleet just like Morocco and have the same tools, same weapons systems, etc.," he said. "Partnering with them gives both sides a chance to share ideas and build more with what we have."

Members of the SCANG were also on hand to make sure supplies and inspections were good to go so the Moroccans could accept the aircraft into their inventory.

The Arizona Air National Guard is also pertinent in the process as they have helped train the RMAF to become familiar with the fighter aircraft, explained Lt. Col. Chuck Blank, commander of the 52nd Fighter Squadron in Tucson, Ariz., where the international pilot training program was held.

"We hosted and trained 10 Morocco pilots, which includes four instructor pilots," he said. "Three have graduated so far and they have really performed."

The four instructor pilots went through a 19-month instructor pilot training course, Colonel Blank explained. The instructors now have the capacity to train their own pilots, conducting non-instructor pilot training which takes approximately six to seven months to bring students to initial flight qualification.

The RMAF pilots entering the program are seasoned in other fighter aircraft, and their experience has translated well to the new aircraft, Colonel Blank said.

"They were fully qualified to fly the F-5 before this," he said. "They have been flying for a long time and are incredibly sharp. They can take the best of what we taught them and add it to their experience with the F-5, and employ the F-16 the way the Moroccans intend to."

The ANG units combined to facilitate the aerial facet of the of aircraft as well.

The F-16s took off from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., and Airmen from the 151st Air Refueling Wing, Utah ANG, provided KC-135 air refueling support, while F-16 pilots from the Arizona and South Carolina ANG helped fly the planes to their final destination. Two Moroccan observer pilots flew in the back seats of the two D-Model aircraft.

(Maj. Krista DeAngelis, 151st Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this story)