Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 2

 Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters,
valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in
/mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning :
session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent
output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in
/mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning :
Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started
at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in
/mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 F-22 ROAD
SHOW F-22: AND LETHAL Mass, speed and guile fail to score Raptor
shootdowns during Alaskan exercises As the F-22 begins its operational
life, interest has turned to assessing just how well suited the stealthy
Raptor is to its role as the premier air-to-air fighter, while taking a
peek at some of the surprises for pilots and maintenance crews as they
explore what the aircraft can do. As part of the research for this series
of articles on the F-22, Michael Fabey flew in the back seat of an F-15D
while the Eagle and Raptor pilots demonstrated their aircraft’s
capabilities in the air-to-air ranges at Tyndall AFB, Fla. For additional
details of the Raptor’s unique air-to-air capabilities, see AW&ST Sept.
6, 1999, p. 84. DAVID A. FULGHUM and MICHAEL J. FABEY/WASHINGTON T he F-22
is proving it’s a dogfighter after all. While it wasn’t part of a
hard-turning furball, an F-22— with its Amraams and Sidewinders
expended—slipped into visual range behind an F-16 and undetected made a
simulated kill with its cannon during the stealth fighter’s first
largescale exercise and deployment outside the continental U.S. Those and
other revelations about the F-22’s emerging capabilities are
increasingly important as the first combat unit, the U.S. Air Force’s
27th Fighter Sqdn., begins its initial Air Expeditionary Force deployment
this month to an undisclosed site. And the first F-22 unit, the 94th
Fighter Sqdn., will participate in Red Flag in February. The gun kill is a
capability Air Force planners hope their F-22s won’t use. The fighter is
designed to destroy a foe well beyond his visual and radar range. Within
visual-range combat and, in particular, gun kills are anachronisms. In
amassing 144 kills to no losses during the first week of the joint-service
Northern Edge exercise in Alaska last summer, only three air-to-air
“kills” were in the visual arena—t wo involving AIM-9 Sidewinders
and one the F-22’s cannon. The 27th Fighter Sqdn. aircraft—on
deployment from Langley AFB, Va.— didn’t get to show off their J-Turn
and C obra maneuvers or their high-angleof-attack, high-off-boresight
which actually will arrive with the AIM-9X and unique nose-pointing
capabilities. The reason, those involved say, was because the victims of
the three encounters, flying conventional fighters, never had a clue they
were being stalked by F-22s until they were “killed.” Raptor pilots
agree that their preferred location for the fighter while in the
battlespace is at high altitude, well above the other fighters, where they
can adopt a fuel-efficient cruise, sweeping both the air and ground with
radar and electronic surveillance for targets. From a superior altitude,
the F-22 used sustained supercruise to range across hundreds of miles of
airspace before an enemy fighter could threaten friendly high-value
surveillance, command-andcontrol and tanker aircraft. Perhaps the most
important revelation by the 27th Fighter Sqdn. was demonstrating the
F-22’s ability to use its sensors to identify and target enemy aircraft
for conventional fighters by providing information so they could engage
the enemy sooner than they could on their own. Because of the advanced
situational awareness they afford, F-22s would stick around after using up
their weapons to continue providing targets and IDs to the conventional
fighters. “We always left F-22s on station to help, but we didn’t
designate any one aircraft to provide data,” says Lt. Col. Wade
Tolliver, the unit’s commander. “It was critical that every F-22 out
there provided all the data he had.” W i t h its high-resolution radar,
the F-22 can guarantee target altitudes to within a couple of hundred
feet. Its ability to identify an aircraft is “sometimes many times
quicker than the AWACS,” he says. “It was a combination of
highwww.aviationweek.com/awst DARIN RUSSELL/LOCKHEED MARTIN 2 AVIATION
WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY 8, 2007   Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid
characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning :
Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the
current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in
Unknown on line 0        

Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007

Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 1
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 2
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 3
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 4
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 5
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 6
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 7
Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 8
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com