Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 6
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SHOW Away Game First F-22 large-scale, air combat exercise wins praise and
triggers surprise DAVID A. FULGHUM/WASHINGTON ANDY WOLFE/LOCKHEED MARTIN
The U.S. Air Force’s oldest F-117 and newest F-22 operational stealth
fighters fly together over a test range in the southwest U.S. But the
Raptor brings far greater capabilities in speed, altitude and
intelligence-gathering to the fight. I t’s high drama. The first combat
squadron of F-22s goes on its longest deployment—3,200 naut. mi. away—
with an immature aircraft and a new skipper. Despite the potential for
unknown pro blem s and the uncertainty of bei n g far from its maintenance
base in L a n g le y AFB, Va., the 27th Fighter S q d n . was able to go to
war for two weeks with 12 F-22s. Every flying day of the Northern Edge
exercise in Alask a , the truncated force was able to launch eight
aircraft for a 2.5-hr. mission, return, re-arm and then launch six a i rc
ra f t , says Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver, who at the time of deployment had
been squadron commander for two weeks. While no more than one-third of the
defending force, the F-22s generated 49% of the air-to-air kills. And
perhaps the most pleasing vindication for the F-22 design was avoiding the
stealth maintenance problems that dogged the B-2 bomber during its early
deployments. Repairing and curi n g the exterior finish of the B-2 requ i
re d a special climate-controlled hangar wherever it went to ensure that
it stayed low observable LO . “You have to maintain the signature of any
LO aircraft,” Tolliver says. “They were able to take care of it in
Alaska with no problem. Here at Langley we have a special facility. In
Alaska we did our [stealth] repairs on the flight line or in a normal
hangar.” What Tolliver didn’t discuss was the F-22’s Signature
Assessment System. “SAS will tell you if you can ignore the accumulated
scratches and dings,” says an official involved in the Raptor program.
“If you have sufficient LO margin, you don’t have to make immediate
repairs and can simply wait until the return to Langley. The stealth
signature is still not easy to fix, but the stealth coatings are not as
fragile as they were in earlier stealth aircraft. It isn’t damaged by a
rain storm, and it can stand the wear and tear of combat without
degradation.” “T he biggest success at Northern Edge was
maintenance,” Tolliver says. “We were tasked for 105 sorties; we
launched 102. That’s a 97% sortie generation rate. That’s incredible
on an immature fighter. Since we were doing eight turn six [launching
eight F-22s, then returning and launching another six] the whole time with
12 jets, that resulted in a 21.8 utilization rate. Normalized over a month,
that means each plane would fly 21.8 times.” The squadron sent a
relatively compact organization to Alaska to support the exercise. “The
deployment plan was two KC10s dragging 12 F-22s from Langley to
Elmendorf,” Tolliver says. “It’s an 8-hr. f light and 3,200 naut.
mi. We took all our people with us [218 personnel] on the two KC-10s
except for the 15-member advance team we sent about three days earlier.
They’re there early to set up and have guys ready to catch the airplanes
when the jets land.” To prepare for the trip, the squadron stopped flying
three days prior to prepare the F-22s. Two days prior, they readied all the
cargo. One day prior, the pilots and maintainers had a final briefing and
planners finalized which 12 aircraft would be deployed. T he support
package included the equipment and spare parts to maintain the aircraft
for 45 days. In the mix were two extra Pratt & Whitney F119 engines. They
had to take F-22-specific aircraft support equipment with them because
none is distributed around U.S. bases, as is done for F-15s and F-16s.
“T hat equated to 63 increments of cargo [pallets carrying 170 short
tons],” Tolliver says. “That’s about five C-17 equivalents. What
didn’t go by air went by truck and then ferry to Alaska. That’s about
in line with what’s needed for 12-15 F-15Es going to a bare base.” W
hen the system matures, around 2010, Air Force planners hope to cut that
number. They want to deploy 24 F-22s with just seven C-17s loads—about
30% less than today. However, program officials say that by summer 2009,
they www.aviationweek.com/awst 6 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY
8, 2007 Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid
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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
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