The rhetoric of diplomats and political leaders about the crises that rock the world today is one thing. But there are signs that speak much more to the reality of these tensions. This is the case when the US Air Force sends on a mission to the China Sea, F16s from the Misawa air base on the north coast of Japan, to patrol for several hours in the south of the China Sea, heavily armed for air-to-air missions with active ammunition. This is precisely what was the case a few days ago, when 4 F16 Wild Weasels returned to their base in Misawa after a deployment of several days to a base on the island of Okinawa, in the south of the country, from which the aircraft carried out, on April 12, a mission of several hours in front of a squadron of 16 J-16, 4 J-10, 4 H-6K bombers and 2 ASM KQ-200 fighter planes and a KJ-500 aerial watch of the People's Liberation Army came to challenge the Taiwanese defenses as well as the carrier strike group of the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt maneuvering in the area.
According to a very detailed article from Thedrive.com, the 4 heavily loaded US Air Force F-16s effectively each carried 5 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles as well as an AIM-9X or AIM-9M Sidewinder self-defense missile, and a AN-ALQ-184 electronic warfare pod, revealing the highly operational nature of the mission. Indeed, for training or patrol missions in peacetime, combat aircraft almost never carry active ammunition, these having a limited flight potential of a few hundred to a few thousand flight hours. . What is more, like combat aircraft, missiles must undergo maintenance procedures after a certain number of flight hours. In fact, the air forces favor the use of inert ammunition for training missions, equipped with the only missile guidance system to simulate its use. And when the use of active ammunition is required, their number is generally reduced to the strict minimum, always with the aim of preserving its potential.
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