F-16 specialisations?

I haven't used up my "stupid question" quota for the day, so...

The F-16 does everything. SEAD, Strike, CAP, etc. Everything except dropping the kids to school.

In the real world (e.g. USAF), would a single pilot be expected to be an expert at all of it? Or would there be different pilots specialising in different mission types?

It seems like a lot for one person to stay current on - flying A-A is a very different skill to attacking ground targets, especially with the range of weapons available to the F-16. IMHO of course.

I believe even a-10 pilots train a-a. So one guy do it all.

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I think all pilots would be expected to know all tasks that their airframe is capable of, but often you have instructors that have expertise for one specific task.

At least in the Navy TOPGUN environment, you would have one person from the airwing to be sent to TOPGUN, learn as much as he/she can, and then come back to the wing and pass on what he/she learned.

It has always been my impression that pilots will be proficient in all aspects of their aircraft's capabilities, but they or their unit may be tasked with a specialization. For instance, the 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, MN specializes in SEAD tasks, and even has some HAVE GLASS aircraft with reduced RCS for the purpose.

In the real world (e.g. USAF), would a single pilot be expected to be an expert at all of it? Or would there be different pilots specialising in different mission types?

It would depend on a Squadron at a specific time. For example; let say a unit is going to deploy to X country and perform combat air patrols, that unit would intensify training in those missions prior to that deploy to increase proficiency.

That same unit come back to Home station and a few week later needs too deploy to do CAS, then they will increases training of that mission.

Yes...and no. Every unit in the Air Force has a specific "Wartime Mission". A units primary mission is what they spend the most time training for. Yes, an F-16 "CAN" do everything except the kids homework...but we don't want pilots going to war good at "everything". We want pilots going to war to do specific Jobs. What does this mean? Money. It all comes down to money.

Let's say a unit has a wartime mission of SEAD. As a commander I need to make sure my unit is capable of executing its wartime mission flawlessly so I allocate my training time and money to SEAD training than ACM training. Yes, they will train and are proficient in ACM...but since it's not their dedicated wartime mission, less time and money is allocated to it than SEAD.

The other side of the coin...A National Guard unit with a Peacetime/Wartime mission of Air Defense will spend far more time / money practicing ACM than it will for Ground attack. Can they drop Bombs safety? Sure. But they will spend far more time training for ACM.

Make Sense?

Make Sense?

Yep, some very interesting answers. Thanks all!