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 Digital eyepiece increases capabilities of F-16 pilots By Staff Sgt. Luke Olson
                114th Fighter Wing, South Dakota Air National Guard
 MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. - The 114th Fighter Wing sent more than 90 Airmen and nine F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft for Lobo Summit 2018 training deployment to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, Jan. 4-19. Lobo Summit was a temporary duty assignment preparing the 114th FW for the unit's future Air Expeditionary Forces deployment (AEF). Some of the main points of this high-level collective training included: low-level flying in mountainous regions, close air support (CAS) training and night flying training with a new digital eye-piece add-on system. "Lobo Summit was a great opportunity for senior maintenance personnel to pass down knowledge to the next generation maintainers," said Chief Master Sgt. Blake Parke, NCOIC for the deployment and 114th Maintenance Operations Flight superintendent. "We had relatively inexperienced crew on this trip. There were one or two people in each shop that had lots of experience and for the rest it was only their first or second deployment," he said. Since many members of the teams are part-time, or traditional, Guard members, they aren't given the opportunity to put in a lot of hours working directly and consistently on the aircraft. "The training we get from these trips is immeasurable. Our members get more training and experience out of a two-week trip than many will see in an entire career of Guard drills," Parke said. As well as the maintainers, the pilots of the unit benefited from this training. Working with Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) specialists during their flying missions, they simulated air attacks with CAS. The TACP's primary role is to direct combat strike aircraft against enemy targets. "This terrain, which is somewhat mountainous, reflects similarly to the area of responsibility that the 114th will deploy to for our AEF deployment coming up." said Maj. Jeremy Doohen, 114th Operations Group pilot. Along with the benefit of the mountainous terrain, the pilots were able to practice their night flying skills with the use of a new digital eyepiece (DEP) attached to their helmets. This new technology works with a pilot's night vision goggles to essentially turn night into day. The new digital eyepiece transforms their existing helmet-mounted displays (HMD) and night-vision goggles (NVG) into "smart helmets," effective in night flying. "With the U.S. being smart with their military tactics they look for opportunities where we can gain an advantage and a lot of times that's at night," said Maj. Jeremy Doohen, 114th Operations Group pilot. "This new system allows our targeting cueing capabilities to be overlaid into our night vision goggles; before this, there were just night vision goggles." This upgrade highlights the Guard forces' push toward full spectrum readiness by improving current war fighting equipment. "It doesn't just turn night into day, it makes it a lot easier for you to pick out definition in the landscape and you can see a mountain," said Doohen. "It gives us the ability to put our radar onto an aircraft or a target and have that overlay within our night vision goggles." As a clip-on device, the DEP enables the pilots to transition from day to night configuration, improves situational awareness, provides daytime cueing and displays capabilities during night operations. "The technology is moving in the right direction so now we can say, 'we can try that at night' because now we have better capabilities at night," said Doohen. "It's exciting. It makes it that much easier for the pilot to accomplish the mission."
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