F-22 Raptor News

October 28, 2005 (by 1st Lt. Elizabeth Kreft) - The familiar sound of flying Raptors will soon fill the Virginia skies again. The 27th Fighter Squadron returns to Langley AFB on Oct. 28 from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, ending two weeks of out-of-town training and bringing the first-ever deployment for the F/A-22 Raptor to a close.
"Training like this is imperative to being prepared for real-world scenarios," said Brig. Gen. Burt Field, 1st Fighter Wing commander. "The lessons learned from this deployment will undoubtedly leave our team better equipped for any mission tasking."

The last phase of flying training for the squadron took place over the Nevada desert Oct. 26. With simulated surface-to-air missile sites at the Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., range primed for practice, the 27th FS took to the skies to familiarize themselves with the Raptor's advanced offensive stealth capabilities.

"In any other aircraft, if I were going to try and do what I did today, I'd be dead," said Maj. Chuck Corcoran, 27th FS assistant director of operations. "Pitting the Raptor against the simulated effectiveness of the next generation SAM sites is an important step in gaining confidence in this airplane's capabilities."

This type of obstacle-course style training was new to many of the squadron's pilots, and even those who had experienced it before knew it as a near-impossible mission prior to flying the F/A-22.

"Every other legacy platform that we have used up to this point would have left us planning to avoid these threats," said Capt. Geoffrey Lohmiller, 27th FS weapons and tactics chief. "Now we have the ability to penetrate anti-access environments, and we certainly proved that to ourselves today."

Impressive as the in-air activities had been, the abilities proven throughout the deployment extend far beyond the cockpit. Maintainers personnel managed to secure parts from seven different bases and plants to ensure the deployed sorties could take place.

"Overall, the lateral support for this weapons system still needs work, but that is one of the greatest lessons learned from this deployment," said Capt. James Jernigan, 1st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron officer in charge. "The system maturity issues in relation to the mission-ready spares package is something that will need attention, but now we have data points we can focus on, and that will make our system fixes easier to assess."

"We have so much information to take back home with us," said Senior Master Sgt. Steve Lebron, 27th Aircraft Maintenance Unit assistant noncommissioned officer in charge. "Now we can take the data we have, bring it back to Langley and implement the changes that will make our entire team better at accomplishing any mission."

Though the historic deployment was a training opportunity rather than a test of capabilities, 27th FS commander Lt. Col. Jim Hecker said he feels the team can go home carrying a near-perfect report card that will help to illustrate the team's preparedness for future missions.

"Taking the Raptor on this deployment provided the squadron and the wing with invaluable information on the road toward initial operational capability," he said.