F-22 pilots, maintainers continue to mature understanding of new stealth jet
By Michael Sirak, Defense Daily - 02/07/2007

LANGLEY AFB, VA.--Airmen who fly and maintain the Air Force's newest fighter jet, the stealthy F-22A Raptor, say they are impressed with its capabilities and comparative ease of upkeep, and continue to learn more about the aircraft each day.

"From a pilot's point of view it is incredible to see the increase in technology," Capt. Brian Budde, an F-22 pilot in the 94th Fighter Squadron (F.S.), Langley's second combat-ready Raptor unit, said of the new aircraft during a meeting with reporters here late last month. "I feel very confident in its capabilities against any threat out there."

Budde is an experienced fighter pilot who transitioned to the Raptor after flying the most advanced version of the Air Force's F-15C Eagle--the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar-equipped variant based at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.

As capable as those Eagles are, he said he is learning that the Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built F-22 shines above them in areas like its ability to avoid detection by enemy radar.

"It takes a little bit of time to really trust in [the Raptor's] stealth because you are flying a big piece of metal out there against very capable radars," Budde said of his training in the jet. "You are getting closer [to the radars] than you are used to in the Eagle and you are saying, 'He's got to see me,' and yet he doesn't see you, and you learn to trust that and use that to your advantage to employ the jet in the way that it was designed."

Another advantage of flying in the F-22, Budde said, is the knowledge of the battlespace that the pilot readily gleans from the cockpit sensors.

"The incredible sensors that the jet has have been eye-opening,"

he said. "Immediately when you step into the jet, you have increased situational awareness."

Compared to the F-15 in which pilots have to look at several displays to understand their situation, Raptor fliers can rely on the central cockpit display, Budde said.

"Now I've got basically everything I need on one display," he said. "I can look at that one display now and get an overall picture of the 360 degrees around me and see what I need to do to execute tactically."

Budde also said the Raptor's engines are "incredibly powerful and reliable," enabling the aircraft to maintain supersonic cruising speeds without the need for afterburners. Pilots refer to flying without afterburners as operating on standard military power or "milpower."

Raptor pilots are cleared to fly the aircraft up to Mach 2.0 and altitudes up to 50,000 feet, he said.

"To be able to operate at those altitudes at milpower is not something I am used to in an Eagle," he said.

This combination of speed and altitude offers advantages when firing one of the F-22's complement of air-to-air missiles, such as Raytheon's [RTN] AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), against an opponent, he said.

"If I am at 50,000 feet and going Mach 2, that AMRAAM loves that.

It will go forever and it will give [the missile] increased endgame energy," he said.

Airmen keeping the F-22s ready for their missions say they are equally impressed with the aircraft to date and are refining the processes for how they service them as part of the normal maturation process of incorporating a new platform into the service's inventory.

Chief Master Sgt. Mark Wilder, who is in charge of maintenance on the Raptors of the 94th F.S., said the Raptors are holding up "as well as expected" overall thus far. Maintaining the aircraft's low- observable attributes remains a "labor intensive" activity but is comparatively easier than on the Air Force's earlier stealth platforms like the F-117 Nighthawk.

"These airplanes are outside all day long in the harshest of environments and they fare very well," Wilder said.

The Raptors are inspected each day for imperfections that could degrade their radar-evading skin, he said. If the damage, such as an abrasion, is deemed serious enough, restoration work on the outer mold line will be carried out immediately, he said. If not, the imperfections are carefully tracked and monitored until they cumulatively would make the aircraft non-mission-capable and therefore require restorative action.

Maintainers are finding that a desert environment is the most sparing on the Raptor, Wilder said, acknowledging that this may appear counterintuitive because this hot climate is often regarded as being quite harsh with its sand and dust.

"The airplanes perform better in the desert," he said. "A dry environment on an airplane is less corrosive. There is not a lot of moisture.

"If you want to compare, Tyndall [AFB] in Florida, where we fly our training jets is very corrosive and very hazardous to the airplanes' health," he continued. "I think we are probably mild here [at Langley] so the airplanes seem to perform better. And Edwards [AFB] in California or Nellis [AFB] near Las Vegas are much better. The airplanes do very well."

Maintainers like the aircraft's sophisticated health management system that automatically alerts when a component is failing or in need of replacement, said Wilder and Senior Airman Will Rotroff, a member of 94th F.S.' maintenance staff.

Rotroff said the use of Portable Maintenance Aid (PMA), essentially a portable computer, to interface with the aircraft's diagnostics system post flight, makes it much easier to determine what requires servicing.

"Right away, we hook up the PMA, and right away...we see what needs to be serviced and can service it right away," he told Defense Daily.

This obviates "having to troubleshoot for days," he said.

Wilder said the maintainers are still optimizing the health management system so that there are less false reports such as warning of a faulty fuel pump when the pump is in fact still good.

"That is a continual process," he said. "The onboard diagnostics...is a completely automated system that diagnoses down to the root cause failure. Yet because it is a new airplane...there is always fine tuning going on. We load filter files to the software on the airplane at least once a month."

Despite this activity and additional refinements, Wilder said the F-22s are definitely ready for combat, as evidenced by the Raptor's participation in last year's Northern Edge exercise in Alaska.

"If you can take this airplane to Elmendorf [AFB] like we did this past summer and kick the living snot out of everything, even when there are system flaws, then that is most definitely combat capable."

In fact, he said, "That is awe-inspiring."

Twelve F-22s from the 94th Fighter Squadrons' sister unit, the 27th F.S., were scheduled to deploy yesterday and today to Kadena Air Base on island of Okinawa, Japan for a three-to-four month stint. This is the first-ever overseas combat deployment of the Raptor.

Meanwhile, the 94 F.S. is preparing to send 14 Raptors to Nellis AFB, Nev., to participate in upcoming Red Flag air combat exercises.

This will be this unit's first large-scale exercise. Later this year, the 94th F.S. will be eligible for combat deployment under the service's Air and Space Expeditionary Force rotations.

"Raptor pilots are cleared to fly the aircraft up to Mach 2.0 and altitudes up to 50,000 feet, he said.

"To be able to operate at those altitudes at milpower is not something I am used to in an Eagle," he said. "

Yeah, I noticed that too. Once again, a clear indication, from yet another of its pilots, that this beast cruises at Mach 2...

Budde also said the Raptor's engines are "incredibly powerful and reliable," enabling the aircraft to maintain supersonic cruising speeds without the need for afterburners. Pilots refer to flying without afterburners as operating on standard military power or "milpower."

Raptor pilots are cleared to fly the aircraft up to Mach 2.0 and altitudes up to 50,000 feet, he said.

"To be able to operate at those altitudes at milpower is not something I am used to in an Eagle," he said.

Lockheed Martin published a confirmed unclassified supercruise speed of 1.78 Mach....I would venture that the actual number was 'tuned' down for public consumption as that is usually how its done. I asked a pilot on the flightline once how fast it was and he said, "I know you've got a clearance but you don't need to know...well put it this way, I've supercruised in this thing at the highest speed I've ever personally took the '15." That says a lot for the jet...Check

Lockheed Martin published a confirmed unclassified supercruise speed of 1.78 Mach....I would venture that the actual number was 'tuned' down for public consumption as that is usually how its done. I asked a pilot on the flightline once how fast it was and he said, "I know you've got a clearance but you don't need to know...well put it this way, I've supercruised in this thing at the highest speed I've ever personally took the '15." That says a lot for the jet...Check