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A Discovery Air Defence Alpha Jet taxis with CF-18 and F-15 at Tyndall AFB, on Exercise Combat Archer. DA Defence Photo
Discovery Air Defence Services Inc. (DA Defence), a wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Air Inc., the world’s largest provider of tactical adversary services, recently deployed with Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CF-18s to Exercise Combat Archer at Tyndall Air Force Base.
DA Defence Alpha Jets executed numerous Red Air missions providing dissimilar air combat training for CF-18, F-22, F-35, and F-15 aircrew during a three-week deployment in Florida, which ended Feb. 5.
“They [DA Defence pilots] are Canadian-trained and are some of our most qualified pilots—utmost professionals,” said LCol Dave Turenne, Commander of 425 Squadron. “Those guys are going to do exactly what we need them to do, by providing the presentations and understanding the exact things we’re looking for in training,” he added.
“Anytime we get contracted Red Air, everybody likes it. It’s an extra tactical challenge to solve. The jets, the electronic attack, the low flying and just their experience as aircrew add to the complexity of the mission,” said LCol Matt Bradley, Commander of 83rd Fighter Weapons Squadron.
“For the young pilots with 50 to 100 hours in the jets, they’re building all their experience and the [Alpha] jets are something else they haven’t seen before.”
“Our participation in Combat Archer affirms the continued confidence and trust by Canada and the U.S. in the value of embedded adversary training that our capabilities, people and experience provide. We contribute to the combat readiness of the finest fighter pilots in the world and I’m very proud of our accomplishments at Combat Archer,” said Paul Bouchard, president of DA Defence.
DA Defence and its U.S. subsidiary, Top Aces have the world’s largest privately-held, operating fleet of combat aircraft. The training provided supports the operational readiness of both current and future generation fighter aircraft.
