CONSTANT PEG PROGRAM MiG-23 FLOGGER FIGHTER JET HAS BEEN NAMED AFTER AIR COMBAT COMMAND COMMANDER

The mission of CONSTANT PEG was to train U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps combat fighter aircrews on the best ways to fight and win when encountering MiGs in aerial combat

As explained by Senior Airman Rachel Loftis, 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs in the article “Capt. Carlisle” unveiled: MiG-23 dedicated to ACC Commander, on Oct. 17, 2016 the U.S. Air Force (USAF) personnel has unveiled a Russian MiG-23 (NATO reporting name Flogger) fighter aircraft nicknamed “Captain Carlisle” which was dedicated in honor of Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command (ACC) during a ceremony at the Threat Training Facility on Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nev..

Col. Samantha Weeks, 57th Adversary Tactics Group commander, opened the ceremony with praise for the aircraft’s namesake.

“It is my honor to be with you today as we dedicate an aircraft to one of the finest fighter pilots in our Air Force and one that I have been fortunate enough to work for almost my entire career,” said Weeks. “To have command of one of his prior assignments is a huge responsibility and one that I am forever grateful.”

Weeks explained that  “Gen. Carlisle has flown more than 3,600 flight hours in seven different fighter aircraft and currently leads over 94,000 Airmen as the ACC commander and while we are here today to dedicate a MiG-23 in his name, I know he would rather make this event about the men and women, pilots and maintainers who devoted themselves to the 4477th CONSTANT PEG.”

CONSTANT PEG was a program named after Maj. Gen. Hoyt S. “Sandy” Vandenberg, whose call sign was “CONSTANT” and “PEG”, the wife of Maj. Gaillard Peck, who initiated the program while working for Vandenberg at the Pentagon.

The mission of CONSTANT PEG was to train U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps combat fighter aircrews on the best ways to fight and win when encountering MiGs in aerial combat. Carlisle was the chief of weapons and tactics as well as flight commander for the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB from 1986 to 1988.

After Weeks’ speech the official dedication portion of the ceremony followed with the unveiling of the nicknamed “Captain Carlisle” MiG-23. Carlisle then took to the podium for brief remarks praising the legacy of CONSTANT PEG.

“We’re approaching 44 years where we have not lost an airplane, thanks to the tough lessons we learned,” said Carlisle. “Since 1972, the Air Force has not lost an airplane in air-to-air combat. Oh and by the way, April 15, 1953 was the last time a soldier had to worry about an enemy airplane dropping a bomb on them.”

Carlisle went on to add, “It’s amazing to think about what our Air Force has done. Those lessons we learned coming out of Vietnam were difficult lessons, but the key point in that statement is we learned the lessons. So, I guess the bottom line to that whole thing is, if you’re in a country that’s an enemy of the United States and you fly for that country the short answer is, it sucks to be you.”

The mach-2 capable MiG-23 Flogger was one of the most-produced and capable Soviet aircraft of the Cold War. It was the first Soviet aircraft to feature variable sweep wings and paved the way for the equally capable MiG-27 Flogger ground strike variant.

Photo credit: U.S. Air Force