Revived after nearly 89 years, the historic Mitchell Trophy Air Race returned with a modern twist as the U.S. Air Force incorporated Agile Combat Employment. Pilots not only raced, refueled and turned their jets around, but also completed a 1.6-mile run to the Selfridge ANGB Museum and back.
Six F-22 Raptors, two each from three squadrons under the 1st Fighter Wing (FW) at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, participated in the first edition of the Mitchell Trophy Air Race after a nearly 89 years hiatus. The air race was held at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, on Mar. 7, 2025, with Raptors from the 27th FS “Fighting Eagles,” 71st FS “Ironmen” and the 94th FS “Hat-in-the-Ring,” and the latter eventually won the cup.
The reinstallation of the much awaited friendly competition was vastly different from the pre-World War II’s biplanes flying at speeds of a few dozen miles an hour and covering not more than 100 miles. It looks innocent and almost greenhorn compared to the supersonic F-22s whose pilots and ground crews had more technically challenging regeneration and maintenance tasks, beside physically gruelling hikes across the snow and below-freezing temperatures.
For the return of the historic competition, the planners injected Agile Combat Employment (ACE) elements in the event. As the participants subsequently explained in the statement released by Selfridge ANGB and JBLE, practicing ACE in the Mitchell Trophy refined the 1st FW’s own ACE practices, as the concept has become a cornerstone in the U.S. Air Force’s preparations for an eventual conventional high-end war with peer adversaries.
The Mitchell Trophy Air Race returned after 88 years, testing speed, endurance & readiness. The 94th Fighter Squadron claimed victory, completing a 446-nautical-mile flight, ground operations & a 1.6-mile pilot run to a historic logbook.
Learn more! ⬇️https://t.co/LyiCNARyWq
— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) March 13, 2025
Mitchell Trophy Air Race
Notably, the 1st FW is the successor to the 1st Pursuit Group, which was based at Selfridge when the Mitchell Trophy Air Race was first created. It was named after 1st Lt. John Lendrum Mitchell Jr., a 1st Pursuit Group pilot who lost his life in a flying accident in France during World War 1, explained Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Held 12 times between from Oct. 1922 to 1936, the air race required flying five laps around a 20 mile course marked with pylons in six open cockpit biplanes, a far cry from its current iteration.
Open only to pilots of the 1st Pursuit Group, the first race was held as part of the larger Pulitzer Trophy air races on Oct. 14, 1922. The trophy was introduced by Lt. Mitchell’s brother, Col. Billy Mitchell. It was traditionally hosted at the Selfridge ANGB, home of the 127th Wing, until its suspension in 1936. Except for brief appearances in the 1960 and 1962 William Tell competitions, the trophy was eventually forgotten, until being rediscovered at Seymour-Johnson AFB.
The air race was now hosted again by the Michigan ANG’s 127th Wing at Selfridge ANGB, as the 1.3 million square feet base is home to other aircraft and had all the infrastructure and support capabilities required to host the six F-22 Raptors. The 127th Wing operates the A-10 Thunderbolt II and KC-135 Stratotanker ,while the Michigan Army National Guard, U.S. Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, and Coast Guard fly the CH-47 Chinook, MH-65E Dolphin and multiple other rotary and fixed wing aircraft.
The air race
For the air race, the three teams of two pilots each from the 1st FW’s 27th, 71st and 94th Fighter Squadrons received the mission tasking in the morning of the event, and were required to get their jets “inspected, armed, fueled and launched to fly to Selfridge,” the Selfridge ANGB’s statement explained. Images showed 94th FS load crew loading an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile into the side internal bays of an F-22 at JBLE.
After reaching Selfridge ANGB, located 446 nautical miles away, one pilot stayed back “to refuel and inspect in preparation for takeoff,” as the pilots “were required to land, park, refuel and launch their own aircraft,” the releases further explained. The other pilot meanwhile had a “side mission,” which involved him leaving the flight line on foot to locate the Selfridge Military Air Museum 1.6 miles away. This was “without any logistical support or contacts on the ground” in temperatures well below freezing and winds at 30 miles/hour.
After reaching the museum, he had to sign the historic guest register, before running back to the flightline. Once returned to Selfridge ANGB, they flew back to JB Langley-Eustis in Virginia.
View this post on Instagram
Capt. Marbro (identified by his callsign for security reasons) of the 27th FS reached the museum in 30 minutes and was the first to sign the register. He was followed by the commander of the 94th FS, Lt. Col. Devil. The maintenance team from the 94th FS also “had the fastest weapons load, which gave their pilot a head start in the race,” a caption said.
The F-22s arrived back at home station in less than five hours. By contrast, in the Mitchell Trophy’s post-World War II iterations, “six open cockpit biplanes completed five laps on a 20-mile course marked with pylons,” the release from Selfridge ANGB said, and “The winner, Lt. Donald Stace, covered 100 miles at a rate of 148 miles per hour.”
Refining ACE
Col. Brandon Tellez, 1st FW commander touched upon the Agile Combat Employment aspect of the competition in the Selfridge ANGB’s release, saying that the “ability to move, adapt and fight” amid logistical, support, intelligence and weather challenges in a peer conflict would “determine mission success.”
In the statement from JB Langley-Eustis, Col. Tellez said the 1st FW’s adversaries are “resourceful and determined to disrupt our tactics, training and procedures in all phases of combat.” He further added “Our warriors must be able to execute effective combat operations in dynamic environments that lack information and time.”
The 94th Fighter Squadron‘s victory highlighted not only their coordination, but also the skills of its “load crew, aircrews and maintainers under realistic, stressful conditions,” mentioned the statement. “We have our ACE capabilities that we emphasize every day and translated them into a competition like this,” said the 1st Fighter Wing’s Historian.
