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F-22 Raptor
(by Randal Yakey, NewsHerald.com) TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE (Panama City, Florida) – The most sophisticated jet fighter ever designed has been deployed overseas for the first time.
The U.S. Air Force confirmed Wednesday the F-22 Raptor had been deployed to Southwest Asia, but Air Force officials hesitated to specify which country.
However, other government officials with knowledge of the situation reported the F-22 landed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) air base at Al Dhafra. UAE is just across the Gulf of Oman from Iran and near the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranian government has said it could close because of sanctions related to the country’s enrichment of uranium for nuclear use.
It is unknown how many F-22s have been deployed and for what reason the mission was launched.
The F-22 Raptor entered service in 2005, but has not seen any battle conditions in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya.
Loren Thompson, of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said he suspects the deployment is for a “training exercise” for the F-22 with real-world implications.
Thompson, a defense analyst who has taught at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, said there could be two different explanations for the F-22 deployment. The first is to engage in training with other countries’ air forces, such as Saudi Arabia’s.
The other possible reason for deployment is more ominous. “It is to have a survivable aircraft if you’re in a fight with Iran,” Thompson said.
…
“People pay attention to where this airplane goes and what it does because, regardless of the furor in our press and public about the suitability or the safety of the airplane, they’re very worried about its capability. That, to me, means we’re on the right path with this capability,” Gen. Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., told reporters Monday.
Thompson agreed, saying the “intimidation factor” of the F-22 was significant. “You can’t even see what you’re shooting at,” Thompson said, referring to the F-22’s ability to avoid detection.
According to the Government Accountability Office, there are about 187 F-22s in the fleet, and the Air Force has reported they have 170 F-22s currently “fielded.”
Tyndall Air Force Base is the home of the 325th Fighter Wing, whose primary mission is to provide air training for F-22 Raptor pilots, as well as maintenance personnel and air battle managers. A new air combat squadron is slated to be installed at Tyndall this summer.
The U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board announced earlier this year it could find no cause for the hypoxia suffered by F-22 pilots from the lack of oxygen in the cockpit. The Air Force also reported a few pilots have asked not to fly the F-22 because of the oxygen problems.
Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from The News Herald.
Questions
1. Define deploy.
2. Where has the F-22 Raptor been deployed (in its first ever deployment)?
3. In what year was the F-22 ready for combat?
4. What are the capabilities of the F-22? (also see “Background” below the questions)
5. What has defense analyst Loren Thompson suggested as two possible reasons that the F-22 was deployed at this time and to this specific location?
6. a) What did Gen. Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., say to reporters this week about the F-22?
b) How do Gen. Hostage’s remarks encourage/inspire you? Explain your answer.
Background
The F-22 Raptor:
- The F-22 Raptor is a fifth generation fighter that is considered a fourth-generation stealth aircraft by the USAF.
- Stealth aircraft are aircraft that use stealth technology to avoid detection by employing a combination of features to interfere with radar as well as reduce visibility in the infrared, visual, audio, and radio frequency (RF) spectrum.
- The US Air Force says that the Raptor cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter types, and maker Lockheed Martin says: “the F-22 is the only aircraft that blends supercruise speed, super-agility, stealth and sensor fusion into a single air dominance platform.”
- The use of internal weapons bays allows the aircraft to maintain a comparatively higher performance while carrying a heavy payload over many other aircraft due to a lack of drag from external stores.
- It is one of only a few aircraft that can supercruise or sustain supersonic flight without the use of afterburners, which consume vastly more fuel. Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1).
- The F-22 can intercept time-critical or rapidly moving targets that a subsonic aircraft would not have the speed to follow and an afterburner-dependent aircraft would lack fuel to reach.
- The F-22 is highly maneuverable, at both supersonic and subsonic speeds.
- It is extremely departure-resistant, enabling it to remain controllable at extreme pilot inputs.
- The Raptor’s thrust vectoring nozzles allow the aircraft to turn tightly, and perform extremely high alpha (angle of attack) maneuvers …
- The F-22 is also capable of maintaining a constant angle of attack of over 60°, yet still having some control of roll.
- During June 2006 exercises in Alaska, F-22 pilots demonstrated that cruise altitude has a significant effect on combat performance, and routinely attributed their altitude advantage as a major factor in achieving an unblemished kill ratio against other US fighters and 4th/4.5th generation fighters. (from wikipedia)
Resources
Visit the Raptor website for a slideshow of photos: f22-raptor.com/media/photoGallery.html. There is a link to videos here as well, but if you are not able to view, the video below is from youtube (our apologies if you are not able to access youtube either):
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