They are not fighter pilots, but they make air traffic controllers nervous with their low-flying maneuvers. They are not civilian pilots, but they almost always fly with civilian crews. They are not transport pilots, but they fly around the world like transport pilots do.
The Air Force’s 375th Operations Group Detachment 1 is a group of 27 pilots, mission specialists, flying crew chiefs, and other staff who perform a little-known mission which military aviation relies on: combat flight inspection, or CFIN.
At night or in bad weather, pilots use navigational aids (NAVAIDs) to land or take off, such as GPS or the instrument landing system (ILS), which uses radio signals to guide pilots to the runway.
On the civilian side, Federal Aviation Administration crews fly safety inspections of NAVAIDs for airfields around the globe. But for airfields in combat zones, that task falls to Det. 1 and their reservist colleagues in the 1st Aviation Standards Flight and a small Army contingent, Det. 1’s then-commander Lt. Col. James Arnold told Air & Space Forces Magazine last year.
“The FAA is entrusted with keeping the National Airspace System safe, and part of that is inspecting navigational aids and procedures and all those things aircraft use to get from one place to another,” Arnold said at the time, before rotating out of the unit. “We do that mission alongside them. And then our sole purpose is to go into those areas of the world where it’s too dangerous for them to go into.”
Det. 1 members spend the vast majority of their time flying with their FAA civilian counterparts inspecting non-combat airfields. Often a single Det. 1 member is the only military crew member on an otherwise civilian flight.
“Really the all-mil is just reserved for combat zones,” Arnold explained. “When we’re flying with the FAA, that’s kind of our on-the-job training to accomplish the all-mil mission.”
The team is based at the FAA’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, but their job takes them everywhere from Alaska to Antarctica and from the Middle East to Guam. Arnold estimated Det. 1 members combined fly about 5,000 hours a year, and that’s just a fraction of the larger FAA flight inspection team.
“Wherever there’s U.S. aviation interests happening, we’re supporting that,” he said.
‘Worst Case Scenario’
On Sept. 24, 1929, then-Lt. Jimmy Doolittle flew the first-ever “blind” takeoff, flight, and landing at Mitchel Field, N.Y., using only radio and instruments such as a direction gyro, an artificial horizon, a barometric altimeter, and more that are now standard features on all aircraft.
“To prove he wasn’t ‘cheating,’ he had a hood placed over his entire seat, effectively trapping him in a blind bubble with only his instruments, the radio, and his determination to improve aviation,” the FAA wrote about the event, which showed how aviators could keep flying through bad weather or visibility.
Nearly a century later, today’s NAVAID includes systems such as ILS, Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range Station (VOR), and the military-specific tactical air navigation system (TACAN). Thousands of those systems around the world make flying across continents in darkness or poor weather a routine thing.
In fact, the main reasons commercial airlines cancel flights during bad weather and poor visibility are airspace limitations and increased space required between aircraft, explained Lt. Col. Eric Penney, Det. 1’s current commander.
In poor visibility conditions, air traffic control “must increase spacing as aircraft can no longer apply ‘see and avoid’ reduced separation requirements,” he explained. “Effectively, traffic is restricted and the airlines will sometimes have to cancel to meet congestion requirements.”
But like any infrastructure, NAVAIDs are affected by age, maintenance, construction, and the environment, so the systems and the procedures for using them require inspections to make sure they work. Runways in combat zones are no exception; during the Cold War, the Air Force ran flight inspection squadrons in the U.S., the Pacific, and Europe. During the Vietnam War, Air Force inspection planes were damaged by enemy fire 26 times.
The military inspection program gradually shrank over the decades, and in 1991 the FAA assumed the entire Air Force flight inspection mission. Among the FAA’s fleet of flight inspection aircraft are six C-143s—Bombardier Challenger 605 business jets modified with defensive systems, secure radios, and other equipment so that all-Air Force crews can fly them in combat.
Flight inspection is no walk in the park: inspectors fly the “worst-case scenario” speed and altitude minimums around the airfield, and then a little bit under that, Arnold explained.
“You’re intentionally coming in below glide slope,” he said. “So you cruise in the whole way just above the treetops, and sometimes ATC will even ask if we’re doing OK, because we’re coming in low. So it definitely throws people for a loop sometimes.
‘Worldwide Impact’
A typical flight inspection crew involves two pilots flying, a mission specialist taking readings on a computer, and sometimes a flying crew chief to provide maintenance support. Because flight inspection is so specialized and dangerous, Airmen tend to commit to the program for at least four years, much of which is spent training for the FAA ratings that they need to do the job.
Air Force flight inspection pilots usually come from the tanker or transport world, while the mission specialists often come from the flight engineer or radar, airfield, and weather systems specialties. Flight inspection is a one-of-a-kind experience, Arnold said.
“It’s a unique assignment where you become an expert in instrument flying,” he said. “You go to all these airfields that you typically would not go to in a manner that you typically won’t ever fly. It’s a lot of work, but you learn a lot while you do it.”
In a conflict, CFIN likely will not fly in on night one to validate NAVAIDs. But if a new airfield in a hostile environment has a mobile TACAN, for example, CFIN can conduct a contingency inspection, then a full-on commissioning inspection once more infrastructure is in place. In other words, they don’t blow down the door, but they show others how to get through it.
“That enables the C-17s and everybody else to deliver payloads in all weather conditions,” Arnold said.
Det. 1, and its reservist counterpart, the 1st Aviation Standards Flight, as well as a small Army contingent, are the only organizations that conduct flight inspection in the U.S. military. That makes them a key part of agile combat employment, the Air Force’s strategy to dart between small operating locations in a conflict with China or Russia. Flight inspectors already check out NAVAIDs across the Pacific, and Pacific Air Forces could request CFIN in a conflict as need arises.
“We go to Guam a few times a year, both the international airport and Andersen [Air Force Base], and we go to all the surrounding fields: Wake, Kwajalein, you name it,” Arnold said. “If it’s got U.S. NAVAIDS, we go there.”
Operating out of a civilian base with a largely civilian crew for nearly four years is an unusual situation for Active-Duty Airmen, but CFIN crews never have to worry about making a difference.
“We just got back from Europe, we’re getting ready to go to the Pacific, we have Antarctica later,” Arnold said. “You do realize you have worldwide impact, you just see it every day.”