Canada’s “Top Guns”

Humble, credible, approachable. These three words embody the characteristics of those who have undergone, and surpassed, the trials of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (FWIC).

Within the international fighter pilot community, completing a Weapons Instructor Course is considered the pinnacle of tactical air power employment. The course is designed to offer the most intense flying the selected candidates will ever experience, while at the same time being their greatest academic challenge. If successful, at the end of six arduous months of flying, briefings, debriefings, exams, and criticisms on the way they walk, talk and present themselves in front of other tactical aircrews, they will be able to call themselves Canadian Fighter Weapons Instructors (FWIs).

Course selection begins when a Boeing CF-18 Hornet pilot shows up at their first operational squadron. Throughout the early Combat Readiness Upgrade (CRUG) process the pilot becomes a competent wingman, learning how to safely remain in formation while effectively employing the jet’s many sensors and weapons. Six months after completing CRUG, they move on to the Element Lead Upgrade (ELUG). There, the pilot is instructed, through both academics and flying phases, on how to effectively brief, debrief, and lead two CF-18s in a tactical environment. A select few are then placed on a Section Lead Upgrade (SLUG), where they are instructed on how to lead four CF-18s in tactical scenarios. Throughout this entire process, which can take up to two years, current and qualified FWIs are active participants in the upgrade process. They are constantly assessing, grading, and evaluating all of the unit’s aviators, to include the next generation of potential FWIs.  

FWIC’s raison d’être has always been to produce and maintain a select few fighter pilots with the highest level of tactical proficiency, instructional ability, and intimate knowledge of CF-18 systems and weapons. They are the experts at tactical instruction within the RCAF, and ensure all who pass through CRUG, ELUG and SLUG meet the standard established by the Fighter Standardization and Evaluations Team. 

“Fighter Weapons Instructors are looked upon as not only the tactical leaders on the operational squadrons, but also as mentors and experts in a very complex, three-dimensional battle space,” said Capt Stephen Latwaitis, Fighter Standards and Evaluation Officer. “They are the holders of the standard; the one whose peers and superiors will turn to when tactical advice and recommendations are required.”

FWIC has traditionally been run every year, beginning in January and ending during the culmination of the candidate’s training in a Large Force Employment scenario, typically at an event like Exercise Maple Flag, six months later. Candidates are identified in the late summer of the preceding year, to give them time to prepare for the upcoming challenge. Of approximately 80 to 90 combat ready fighter pilots in Canada, only four are typically selected to attend FWIC each year, due to the difficult tactical nature of the syllabus and the high demands put on assets, aircraft, and support staff. 

On day one of the course, the candidates will immediately be expected to complete a threshold knowledge exam based on one of the many CF-18 fleet manuals. From that point forward, for the next three weeks, the candidates will undergo intense ground-based training and academic scenarios focusing on instructional fundamentals, instructional techniques, air-to-air tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), CF-18 air-to-air weapons systems, CF-18 defensive electronics suite systems, threat surface-to-air missile systems, threat air-to-air systems, and threat TTPs. 

Interwoven throughout the initial three weeks of academics are multiple exams and exercises to ensure the candidates are duly engaged. During this period, they will also deliver their minor projects to a cadre of past graduates. These comprise a 45-minute briefing on a CF-18 system or tactic, designed to have the candidate properly prepare and deliver an instructional lecture. They are evaluated not only on pure content, but efficacy of the delivery, style in which they present, all mannerisms and gestures during the brief, overall tone, as well as how well they react and respond to questions from the audience.

After the initial intense three weeks of academics, the flying phases begin. The candidates will fly Basic Fighter Manoeuvres, or one versus one; Air Combat Manoeuvring, or two versus one; Air Combat Tactics, up to eight versus an unknown number of adversaries; as well as air-to-air gunnery versus a towed target. Each mission, within each phase, has a tailored objective for the candidate to brief, fly and debrief. The missions get progressively more complex, requiring the candidate to rely on experience, academics, and cognitive reasoning to come up with a tactically appropriate solution to the problem presented. The issues and challenges can be as diverse as going up against an unknown adversary in a one versus one engagement, to having a known number of threats or undisclosed type of threats appear during a mission. It could also be as simple as removing a capability of the CF-18 from the candidate’s normal repertoire to see how they adapt. As an example, the instructors may remove the capability of Link 16 (data link) to force certain tactical problems during the mission. In these scenarios, the candidates are expected to rise to the occasion to effect an appropriate solution. If they are unable to solve the tactical problem, it falls to them, in the debrief, to not only figure out what went wrong tactically, but how to fix it in order for it to not recur. 

The debrief is where the FWI earns his patch. Typical pre-flight briefings on FWIC missions last one and a half hours, a flight will last two hours, and the debrief will take as long as necessary in order to properly identify the root cause of any errors. This can be upwards of three hours, depending on the effectiveness of the candidate. Once the candidate’s debrief and assessment of the mission is complete, the Instructor Pilot debriefs the candidates on their performance. 

Historically, there are 20 to 25 missions during the air-to-air portion of FWIC. During this time, not only are the candidates exposed to an increasingly complex threat environment; but academically, they are also exposed to all the air-to-air weapons systems the CF-18 can employ. As tactical and weapons subject matter experts, they will be afforded the opportunity to employ most, if not all, of the CF-18’s air-to-air weaponry on a controlled, academic range, against unmanned targets. 

Once the air-to-air portion is complete (typically two to three months), the air-to-surface portion commences. This phase will begin with a cessation of flying activities and a refocus on instructional techniques, air-to-surface tactics and weapons in an academic environment. The candidates will hear lectures on targeting and delivery against fixed and mobile targets, receive expanded academic instruction on the capabilities of the CF-18’s air-to-surface sensors and weapons systems, academics on how to design attacks for given effects versus certain targets, advanced Close Air Support procedures, integration with Special Operations Forces, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance lectures, Combat Search and Rescue techniques, and threat lectures.  

It is during this timeframe that candidates are required to deliver their major projects. By this point in the course, they are expected to have produced a thesis-level argument with a written paper and presentation on a given topic. These topics are varied in an attempt to expand known tactics to new or unproven weapons systems. This is a very important part of the course, as these presentations are often used for the development of future tactics, techniques and procedures.

Once the air-to-surface academics have been completed, the candidates begin the formal air-to-surface flying phase. The focus of these missions remains primarily on instructional technique and employment. Initially, the candidates will be flying academic air-to-surface attacks at Jimmy Lake Range at 4 Wing Cold Lake, in Alberta, where they can refine their brief/debrief techniques, as well as hone their air-to-surface dive deliveries and systems employment in a controlled environment.  

The students then move onto the Close Air Support phase once the Academic Range phase is complete. This is when they typically work hand-in-hand with Canadian Special Operations Force and Joint Terminal Air Controllers. The pilots will be exposed to highly dynamic scenarios in which they are expected to employ the CF-18’s sensors and weapons in close proximity to friendly forces engaged in a ground conflict. They will act as air support for the ground forces’ commander. 

After this phase, they move onto the Air Interdiction phase, which constitutes the final portion of the course.

Up to this point, the candidates will have been exposed to a high level and high tempo of both air-to-air and surface-to-air threats. They have seen multi-axis threats, been exposed to hours of briefs and debriefs, long days and short nights. They will now be expected to lead progressively more complex missions with four-ships of CF-18s against an increasingly smart and capable threat. These missions will draw on all facets of what the CF-18 was designed to do: engage threats in the air-to-air environment, deliver ordinance on a given target in a hostile territory, and then fight its way home. 

The students will begin this phase in what is called a four versus unknown scenario, where the candidates will be given an assigned target and potential surface-to-air threat locations. They will be expected to lead their formation to the target, engage it successfully, and then get home. These missions will slowly progress from the four aircraft into the Mission Commanding (MC). The MC portion of the course will occur during a Large Force Employment Exercise (LFE), such as Maple Flag, held annually at 4 Wing Cold Lake. In these missions, candidates are responsible for leading a package of aircraft, including multiple formations of allied fighter, transport, helicopter, air-to-air refuelling, and airborne early warning aircraft. It will be the candidates’ ultimate responsibility to plan a safe and efficient flow for over 100 allied assets to a holding area, ingress into a hostile nation’s airspace, and successful egress with (ideally) minimal losses. They are also responsible for the airborne execution of the entire package flow; and of course, the overall package debrief, which will cover off any big picture lessons learned and ways to improve. During these events, students are not only responsible for the entire package, but also for the brief/debrief and execution of their own four or eight-ship formations of CF-18s, within the package flow. It is at the successful completion of this LFE phase that they are awarded the designation of Fighter Weapons Instructor. 

Humble, credible, approachable: the three words that began this article. Graduates of the United States Navy’s Top Gun, U.S. Air Force Weapons School and Canadian Fighter Weapons Instructors Course are world-renowned for their tactical ability, knowledge, and skill in a cockpit. More importantly, they maintain the standard within their respective fighter forces. Graduates are seen to be the yardstick against which others must measure themselves. 

“FWIC is designed to test knowledge and push the candidates to a point they never thought they could achieve,” said Capt Latwaitis. “The training is designed to keep the candidates at the leading edge of instructional techniques, tactics development, and core fighter pilot skills.” 

Each FWI personifies the mantra “humble, credible, approachable.” Being able to openly and honestly answer questions, identify problems, and self-analyze are all essential elements of the fighter pilot. Through FWIC, candidates develop their advanced analytical skills to take their squadrons and peers into combat and provide commanders with the tactical insight they require to make effective, sound decisions in times of both peace and conflict.