More than 100 members of the 144th Fighter Wing, the California Air National Guard F-16 unit at Fresno participated in a Combat Archer exercise at Tyndall AFB, Florida, from 5-20 October 2012. Combat Archer is an air-to-air weapons system evaluation program conducted by the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group at Tyndall. Over the course of the exercise, pilots from the 194th Fighter Squadron shot eight AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, six AIM-120 AMRAAMs, and fired more than 6,000 rounds from the F-16’s 20mm gun. The unit scored 100 percent in live fire tests and was graded highly in maintenance operations. While at Tyndall, the wing also took part in Combat Shield, which tests the radar and jamming equipment on the F-16s.
