Top Aces Corp Wins Aggressor Contract | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Mon, Sep 19, 2022

Top Aces Corp Wins Aggressor Contract

Hot on the Heels of F-16 AAF Release, Falcon Operator Nabs Training Deal 

Top Aces Corp has announced its selection for the US Air Force Combat Air Force Contracted Air Support program,  to provide advanced adversary air training to pilots at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida and Luke AFB in Arizona.

Top Aces was a shoo-in for the deal, a 5-year contract worth up to $175 million, due to their status as the sole operator of a commercial F-16 fleet in the USA. Their services will begin training the USAF's F-35A and F-22 fleets before October 1st. The deal will help strengthen the Top Aces brand as the premier aggressor operator, the only option around that can provide realistic, effective force-on-force training with a modicum of technological parity to 5th-generation fighters. 

Their F-16 AAF is a particularly upgraded variant of the venerable bird which adds the Advanced Aggressor Fighter suite of modifications. The end result is a 4th-gen fighter that can hang with aircraft 30+ years its junior. Top Aces only recently overhauled their F-16As to aggressor spec, receiving the Military Flight Release last month from the Air Force. 

The F-16 AAF now includes a raft of improvements, like unique open system architecture capabilities, an Advanced Electronically Scanned Array radar, helmet-mounted cueing systems, infrared search and track capability, passive radio frequency detection, tactical datalinks, and high off-boresight missile capabilities. The chameleonesque AAF also includes high-fidelity weapon simulation capabilities, allowing it to accurately replicate adversary weapons and tactics. Top Aces is currently the only group to operate such an aircraft, standing apart from operators still using earlier generation fighters like the firm's own vintage A-4 Skyhawks. 

Company president Russ Quinn says his firm is pumped to hit the ground running - after all, how many former fighter jocks get to fly an F-16 as a civilian? The operation has managed to log more than 100,000 accident-free flight hours over the last 17 years and stands ready with a team of experienced, former aggressor pilots and tactical controllers at the ready. 

"Top Aces’ cadre of highly-experienced Aggressor pilots and maintenance crews looks forward to supporting Luke and Eglin to fulfill their advanced combat training needs. With our fleet of F-16 AAFs, we deliver a caliber of adversary air training that was previously non-existent. Our commitment is to deliver professional excellence and significant cost efficiencies.” 

FMI: www.topaces.com

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Rutan Long-EZ

He Attempted To Restart The Engine Three Times. On The Third Restart Attempt, He Noticed That Flames Were Coming Out From The Right Wing Near The Fuel Cap Analysis: The pilot repor>[...]

ANN FAQ: Turn On Post Notifications

Make Sure You NEVER Miss A New Story From Aero-News Network Do you ever feel like you never see posts from a certain person or page on Facebook or Instagram? Here’s how you c>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: ICAS Perspectives - Advice for New Air Show Performers

From 2009 (YouTube Edition): Leading Air Show Performers Give Their Best Advice for Newcomers On December 6th through December 9th, the Paris Las Vegas Hotel hosted over 1,500 air >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.28.25)

Aero Linx: NASA ASRS ASRS captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community. The ASRS is an i>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.28.25)

“For our inaugural Pylon Racing Seminar in Roswell, we were thrilled to certify 60 pilots across our six closed-course pylon race classes. Not only did this year’s PRS >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC