Wild Weasels 60th Anniversary F-16

Product:  11x17" Maquette Print

Subject:  F-16C Wild Weasel - Shaw AFB

Medium:  Semi-Gloss Cardstock print

2025 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Wild Weasel mission! To commemorate this momentous anniversary, Shaw AFB has painted aircraft 92-0920 in a special anniversary scheme, commemorating the creation of this incredible mission.  

The nickname, "Wild Weasel," is given to any U.S. Air Force combat aircraft specifically tasked to locate and destroy enemy surface-to-air missile installations in support of friendly air operations.  Originating in 1965, Project Wild Weasel developed specialized aircraft designed to carry sensors and weapons with the capability to detect, locate, and destroy enemy RADAR and SAM sites.  The program's  first  succesful mission was completed on 22 December 1965, when Captain Al Lamb and Captain Jack Donovan, flying a dedicated F-100F Wild Weasel aircraft, scored the first kill on an SA-2 Surface-to-Air Missile site during a Rolling Thunder airstrike 
on a railyard at Yen Bai, 75 miles northwest of Hanoi.  During initial training for the new mission role, Capt Donovan coined the Weasel's unofficial motto when   
he responded to the first description of their task:  "You want me to fly in the back of a little tiny fighter aircraft with a crazy fighter pilot who thinks he's invincible, 
home in on a SAM site in North Vietnam, and shoot it before it shoots me, you gotta be shittin' me!"  

For 60 years now, Wild Weasels have continued their dedicated 
support to air operations, flying the F-100F, F-105F, F-105G, F-4C, F-4G, F-16CJ, and now, the F-35.  For 60 years now, Wild Weasels have put their own aircraft 
and lives in harm's way to protect others, and secure air superiority across all domains.  Wild Weasels:  First In, Last Out!