Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 7

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requirement further reduced to about 50%. “But now, we’re still taking
a lot of extra parts and equipment because we don’t know what’s going
to break,” Tolliver says. “As we fly more and more, we learn that.
Once we get the F-22 fully deployed, some of that aircraft-specific,
mission-generation equipment will be other places.” A point of pride for
the 27th was that crews were able to generate local sorties the day after
they arrived in Alaska at the end of their long flight from Virginia.
Northern Edge was a two-week, largeforce employment exercise, the F-22’s
first. More than 5,000 troops from 36 units participated. T here were nine
large-force employment periods—each about 2.5 hr. long—during the two
weeks. The F-22 flies about 1.25-1.5 hr. without refueling, much the same
as an F-15 or F-16, so the unit was involved in a lot of refuelings. The
missions were mostly flown over the Pacific-Alaskan Range Complex and the
Gulf of Alaska. The range is about 120 X 140 mi. “The airspace was
awesome because we had the surface to 60,000 ft., could f ly supersonic,
chaff and flares allowed, so everything was really good,” Tolliver says.
“Another big benefit was the ability to operate with joint assets. The
services are busy around the world, and tr ying to get together and
operate as a joint combat unit on this scale is tough. Taking this new
fighter and integrating it with all the proven assets ensure that the
first time we go to war is not the first time we’ve operated
together.” Pa r t ic i pa nt s claim that everybody connected with the
F-22 force did bett er in the exercise because of the situational
awareness that the Raptor provides. The Langley F-22s will have another
busy year in 2007. The 27th Fighter Sqdn. will make its first air
expeditionary force rotation. The AEF requirement involves a 20-month
cycle subdivided into fourmonth increments. They train for 16 months and
then deploy four months. The Raptor’s first AEF starts in January.
“We’re anxiously awaiting our orders to deploy somewhere,” Tolliver
says. “We know they want us to go. The pilots and maintainers are
combat-ready. I’d love to go into [the Iraq/Afghanistan] theater and
contribute to the war, but I don’t know. If they want us to contribute,
we’re ready.” Meanwhile, the 94th Fighter Sqdn., which is just
becoming operational, will be the first F-22 unit to participate in Red
Flag at the end of this month. C E DITORIALS A pparently the F-22 Raptor,
the newest aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventor y, isn’t the Cold War
anachronism its detractors thought it would be. In fact, evidence to date
suggests the stealthy fighter is worth more than skeptics expected. At a
current flyaway cost of $136 million, the Raptor will never be a bargain.
The procurement quantity will be an issue as long as it is in production.
But the aircraft’s first largescale deployment, and its performance in
the joint-service Northern Edge exercise in Alaska see p. 46 , show that
taxpayers are getting high value for the high cost. After that exercise,
the F-22’s advantages of speed, altitude and stealth are undeniable. The
Raptor flew 10,000 ft. higher than its “opponents,” and it used its
supercruise capability to dash back and forth across a huge battle space.
Even when the F-22 moved within visual range to “kill” an F-16 with
its cannon—a weapon it may never use in combat—the “enemy” never
knew it was there. Raptor pilots never had a chance to show off their
J-turns, high-alpha loops and high off-boresight capabilities. But never
mind. Virtually no one believes the F-22’s primary role will be
mano-a-mano aerial combat against previous-generation fighters. Far more
important, the aircraft showed some of its value in intelligence-gathering
and surveillance, which kept it over the battlefield long after it had
fired its weapons. No Cold War Vestige, F-22 Is Proving Its Net-Centric
Mettle Loitering at high altitude, F-22s were able to identify targets
accurately enough to satisfy the rules of engagement and pass them along
to conventional fighter aircraft for precise, long-range kills. The F-22
can perform some sur veillance/target identification and signals
intelligence missions of AWACS and Rivet Joint aircraft, respectively. But
unlike those aircraft, which must stay 150 naut. mi. or more away from many
hostile forces, the stealthy F-22 can fly over targets with impunity. It
can build a fresh, up-to-themoment electronic order of battle—the type
and location of enemy emitters, in the air and on the ground—as it
enters an area. In the future, F-22s will analyze and pinpoint the
lowpower wireless communications networks that insurgents use to organize
and trigger weapons remotely. Using lowprobability-of-intercept data
links, F-22s will send information they collect to other aircraft and
intelligence networks. This auspicious beginning shows the F-22 has much
to offer in today’s warfare against insurgents and less-thansuperpower
forces, not just the future high-tech conflicts it was designed to deter.
We’re looking forward to learning more about this versatile aircraft and
the roles it can play in transforming more of the last superpower’s
combat edge, from the realm of explosives to the world of electronics and
networks. c Posted from Aviation Week, January 8, 2007, copyright by The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. with all rights reserved. This reprint implies
no endorsement, either tacit or expressed, of any company, product, service
or investment opportunity. #1-19375571 Managed by Reprint Management
Services, 717.399.1900. To request a quote online, visit
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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
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Aviation Week & Space Technology January 8, 2007 - 8
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