How US and UK fighter pilots get the Skywalker vibe

What's the connection between a Star Wars X-Wing, US fighter jets and the narrow valleys of Snowdonia in Wales? It's all to do with this. Almost every day of the year state-of-the-art aircraft tear down this network of valleys as pilots hone their skills in some of Britain's most challenging terrain. This is the Mac Loop, otherwise known as the Roundabout by US Air Force fighter pilots based in the UK. The Mac Loop is a 21 mile circular network of valleys that give both the UK and US air crews unrivalled opportunities for six or seven minutes of uninterrupted high speed low flying through steep valleys. But this is not the Star Wars connection you're looking for. To find that we need to leave the UK and travel not to a galaxy far far away but across the pond to Southern California to visit its geographic cousin. This is the Sidewinder Low Level, a 300 mile military low altitude training route located within what's known as the R2508 complex and this is a cockpit eye view from an F-16 Viper as it enters Sidewinder Canyon, one of the most famous low-level training routes on Earth. Now for that Star Wars connection, not only does it remind pilots of the canyons used by X-Wing rebel pilots in the movie, but part of the route is even known as the Jedi Transition. And the Sidewinder has played a pivotal part in developing every fighter pilot's best friend, the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System or Auto GCAS for short. Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, this onboard system prevents an aircraft from impacting the ground when a pilot loses situational awareness, vision or blacks out under extreme g-forces by automatically pulling the aircraft up. First tested on F-16s, it became part of the F-35 program in 2019. It's credited with saving at least 17 lives across US military platforms including F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-22 Raptors and F-35s. And the Sidewinder route is regularly surveyed using a C-12 fleet at Edwards Air Force Base, flying the low-level routes down to nearly 200 feet looking for obstacles that could obstruct any aircraft using the route. So now you know the Mach Loop, Star Wars and the Sidewinder Canyon both crucial for low-flying training and both the best locations in the galaxy for pilots to get to feel like an X-Wing rebel fighter pilot. Thanks for watching. For more from BFBS Forces News, like and subscribe to our channel.