Recently, Simple Flying was honored to interview Top Aces’ President Russ Quinn, a former United States Air Force aggressor pilot. Top Aces is a world-leading adversary air provider, serving multiple air forces by providing realistic and updated aircraft for air forces to scrimmage against. Why is adversary air necessary? As Russ Quinn explained so succinctly to Simple Flying, the mission of adversary air is; “To know the threat, to teach the threat and to replicate the threat as accurately as we can.
” So, by providing updated Alpha Jets, A-4 Skyhawks, and early model F-16s – namely former Israeli Air Force F-16 A/B “Netz” (Hebrew for Falcon) packing Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220Es, Top Aces and other such firms can deploy privately owned and maintained aircraft to support training squadrons. Top Aces’ pilots are mostly pilots with over 3,000 hours in fighter jets who can now take that experience and support those about to deploy around the world while having a more stable personal life without being rotated through duty stations. However, one can review a previous guide on aggressor squadrons : One of the many ways air forces prepare for battle.
Considering that A-4s and F-16s have been two of the US Military's aggressor jet platforms and Top Aces employs former aggressor pilots - no surprise that Top Aces has gotten simulated kills on fifth-generation F-35s from their platforms. Another source has confirmed this to Simple Flying. F-35 pilot and published author .