Weapons directors provide situational awareness

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Erin Tindell
  • William Tell Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) --  They came to William Tell to play a video game. But they are not playing Donkey Kong or the latest version of Halo. Instead, they are monitoring radar screens to make sure their pilots stay on track during the competition.

William Tell is a competition which tests an aircrew's ability to perform under combat conditions. The two-week event challenges pilots, weapons loaders and maintainers from five F-15 Eagle fighter squadrons.

Weapons directors are combat controllers of the sky. They monitor radar to tell pilots where the enemy is so the right aircraft may be targeted during a mission. Each major command team at William Tell has two weapons directors to help their pilots come out on top.

“We give (pilots) that extra look because they can only see so far with their radar,” said Capt. Daniel Wrazien, an Air Combat Command team weapons director from the 552nd Operations Support Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

Weapons directors work aboard surveillance aircraft such as the E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system or the E-8 joint surveillance target attack radar system. They are not air traffic controllers, whose main job is to make sure aircraft safely stay apart in the airspace.

“Instead of keeping aircraft apart, we bring them together,” said Senior Airman Randy Stinnett, an ACC team weapons director from the 963rd Airborne Air Control Squadron at Tinker.

While at William Tell, weapons directors will compete on all profiles except Profile IV, the banner shoot.

“You can’t really see a banner on a radar monitor,” Airman Stinnett said.

But what they can see on the monitor tells them what air tactic pilots should use to intercept the enemy, Captain Wrazien said.

As soon as the team’s aircraft take off, the pilots check in with their weapons directors. The weapons directors let the pilots know any airspace restrictions so they will not fly into commercial planes.

Once the weapons directors pinpoint the enemy aircraft, they transmit a series of code via radio to tell the pilots the quickest direction to catch the bad guys, the captain said. From there, the weapons directors sit back, watch the radar and let the pilots know of any changes.

Weapons directors said they are trained to know when to jump in the battle.

“If you don’t speak up at the right time, you can get someone killed,” Airman Stinnett said.

Situational awareness is crucial to being a weapons director, but another important aspect of the job is knowing all aircraft, both friendly and adversary.

“The tough part of the job is that you have to be an expert on all aircraft … so you constantly have to stay in the books to keep fresh,” Airman Stinnett said.

However, during William Tell and during real-world scenarios, all the hard work pays off in the end when a mission is successfully completed, Captain Wrazien said.