• Hill fighter wings head to Red Flag 22-1 with F-35A

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – Reserve pilots and maintainers from the 419th Fighter Wing will join their active-duty partners in the 388th Fighter Wing this week at Red Flag, the Air Force’s premier combat exercise that takes place at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada several times a year.The wings have

  • Hand-painting and high-tech stealth for F-35A

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – How do you make a 51-foot-long, 35-foot-wide fighter jet undetectable? There's no black magic that exists to make the F-35A Lightning II invisible, but it does have masking features which make it challenging to detect, track or target by radar with missiles or by an enemy

  • UPDATE: Hill fighter wings conducting night flying into February

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The active duty 388th and Reserve 419th Fighter Wings will conduct local night-flying operations with the F-35A Lightning II on most weekdays starting this week through February.  During this period, flying is scheduled to be completed by approximately 10:30 p.m., but

  • Maintainers face off during weapons load competition

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – Reserve and active-duty maintainers from the 419th and 388th Fighter Wings went head-to-head during an F-35 weapons load competition here Sept. 24, 2021. During the timed and graded competition, maintainers put their training to the test and proved their combat readiness.

  • An inside look at F-35 pilot helmet fittings

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- Reservists in the 419th Operations Support Squadron play a crucial role to ensure the safety of pilots assigned to the 419th Fighter Wing, the Air Force Reserve’s only combat-capable F-35 unit. “We are responsible for maintaining and repairing pilot gear to ensure

  • Reserve Airman makes history with innovative Project FoX/F-35 development

    For the first time ever, Air Force personnel livestreamed F-35 data directly from the aircraft’s mission systems computers to a connected computer tablet during a ground test March 31, 2021, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.The event was a milestone for the Fighter Optimization eXperiment (FoX), a

  • CSAF visits Hill's fighter wings

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- Today, Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., received briefings on the F-35A Lightning II during a visit to Hill Air Force Base. Brown met with leadership and Airmen from the active-duty 388th and Reserve 419th Fighter Wings. As the Air Force’s first

  • Luke fighter pilot tops 1,000 F-35 flying hours

    Maj. Nicholas “JAKAL” Rallo, an instructor pilot with the 944th Fighter Wing, became the first Luke Air Force Base F-35 Lightning II pilot to attain 1,000 F-35 flying hours here, February 22, 2021.

  • Reserve fighter pilot reaches 1,000 hours in F-35

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — A pilot in the 419th Fighter Wing became the Air Force Reserve’s first operational F-35 pilot to reach 1,000 flying hours in the Air Force's newest fighter jet here today. Maj. Daniel “Mental” Toftness joined the Reserve in August 2018 after 12 years on active duty. He

  • 419th maintainers named Load Crew of the Year

    HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – Reserve maintainers from the 419th Fighter Wing went up against active duty maintainers in the 388th FW during an F-35 weapons load competition here Feb. 5.Crews selected to participate in the annual competition had previously competed in and won quarterly competitions,