The Council for Supply Chain Management (CSCMP) AZ Roundtable invites you to join us Thursday, October 19th from 8 a.m. – 12 noon, as we tour the only active-duty F-16 training wing and F-35A Lightning II training facility, Luke Air Force Base.
Located in Glendale, Arizona, Luke Air Force Base is home to the 56th Fighter Wing, the largest fighter wing in the Air Force. Each year, the base trains more than 280 active-duty, Guard and Reserve F-16 pilots and more than 345 maintenance crew chiefs.
Arriving at Luke AFB in 2014, the fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II integrates advanced stealth technology into a highly agile, supersonic aircraft that provides the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness and unmatched lethality and survivability. The conventional takeoff and landing F-35A is a multirole, supersonic, stealth fighter that has extraordinary acceleration, agility and 9-G maneuverability.
In the battlespace of the future, knowledge is power, and the F-35’s advanced sensor package will gather and distribute more information than any fighter in history. The F-35 is designed to be a key net-enabling node in a system of systems — an information gatherer and transmitter in a vast network. Its tremendous processing power, open architecture, powerful sensors, information fusion and flexible communications links will make the F-35 an indispensable tool in future homeland defense, joint and coalition irregular warfare, and major combat operations.
As Luke AFB is an active base, the event timeline is as follows:
8 a.m. – Board bus at States Logistics
9 a.m. – Tour Luke Air Force Base
11 a.m. – Return to States Logistics, lunch will be provided
All participants are required to ride the bus for entrance into the base, will need to provide a brief background check and closed toe, flat shoes are required.
Founded in 1940, Luke Air Force Base began as an advanced training field in conventional fighter aircraft for the Army Air Corps. The first class of 45 students, Class 41 F, arrived on June 6, 1941 to begin advanced flight training in the AT-6, although a few essential buildings had been completed. Flying out of Sky Harbor Airport until the Luke runways were ready, pilots received 10 weeks of instruction and the first class graduated in August 1941. Then-Captain, Barry Goldwater, served as director of ground training the following year. Additionally, during World War II, Luke Field was the largest fighter training base in the Army Air Forces, graduating more than 12,000 fighter pilots from advanced and operational courses earning the nickname, “Home of the Fighter Pilot.”