"We joke about our missions against the raptor because they can be fairly boring. We fly to the range. Die. Go to the tanker. Go back out. Die. Go back to the tanker. Go back out. Die a third time. Then we go home," says Lt. Col. Paul Huffman, the commander of the 64th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada, who has flown as an adversary against the F/A-22 more than twenty times.
"If anyone has a view from an adversary's perspective of what this airplane can do, it has to be us," Huffman adds. "During Initial Operational Test and Evaluation last year, we rarely saw an F/A-22, let alone got a shot at one. From our perspective, the airplane certainly performed better than expected. The F/A-22 is transformational, no doubt about it."
The 64th flew almost 300 sorties against F/A-22 operational test pilots of the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron based at Edwards AFB, California, during IOT&E last year. "We never got to a merge against a single F/A-22 during IOT&E," Huffman continues.
The 64th Aggressors are well known, as they provide adversary support for Red Flag and other large-scale exercises held at Nellis. Pilots of the 64th use F-16s camouflaged in blue and brown to replicate aircraft, weapons, and tactics employed by potential threats. "We have the experience and knowledge and that's why the Air Force asked our unit to fly against the F/A-22 in IOT&E," Huffman adds. "We flew in every IOT&E mission. We also flew against Raptor pilots in the air combat simulator in Marietta, Georgia."
Many of the IOT&E missions lasted more than three hours and included several engagements. Two F/A-22 pilots often flew against four F-16s from the 64th. Raptor pilots performed pre-strike sweeps, defensive counter-air missions, and surge operations. The sweeps involved clearing a given airspace for attacking aircraft (F-16s, F-15Es, and other bomb-carrying assets). The defensive counter-air missions involved defending a point or airfield against attacking aircraft. Surges involved producing a certain number of sorties in a prescribed period of time.
Today, operational testing of the Raptor continues with the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB.
Lt. Col. Robert Garland, a former F-15C pilot who flies Raptors with the 422nd, provides an F/A-22 perspective on air-to-air combat in the Air Force's most advanced fighter: "Six adversaries provide a good workout for two F-15C pilots," he says. "But for two Raptor pilots, defeating six adversaries is about as difficult as eating breakfast. We don't even break a sweat. The Raptor needs a lot of adversaries to create a challenge."
IOT&E Defined
Every new weapon system the Air Force acquires must be formally evaluated before the system enters full-rate production. The tests are overseen by an independent agency—the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center located at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. The results are reported to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and to Congress. The report includes a pass or fail grade for both the operational effectiveness and the suitability of the weapon system.
During the operational effectiveness testing portion of the F/A-22 IOT&E, Air Force pilots flew as many as four F/A-22s in a variety of simulated combat scenarios. Five different F/A-22s were flown in the tests, which accounted for more than 500 missions and about 1,300 total flying hours. During suitability testing, the Raptor was appraised for how easily it can be deployed and maintained. The testing involved dozens of Air Force maintainers and other support personnel from Air Combat Command. Flights originated from Nellis and from Edwards AFB, California.
Lt. Col. Art McGettrick, commander of the 422nd TES, is one of seven USAF pilots who flew the Raptor in those IOT&E missions at Edwards AFB. "I arrived at Nellis from Edwards in October 2004 after wrapping up the IOT&E report," he notes. "I can say the effectiveness tests were a resounding success overall, though details of the report are classified at a high level to protect the capabilities of the airplane.
"The results looked positive for suitability as well," continues McGettrick. "But we didn't have a chance to address all the suitability criteria since they were based on initial operational capability for the F/A-22, the date the aircraft is declared ready for operational service, which is scheduled for December 2005. In other words, we could not meet criteria set for capabilities the aircraft did not yet have. We gave the Raptor a score of 'effective and potentially suitable.' The suitability score generated attention from officials looking for a pass or fail."
Follow-On Testing
The next series of tests, called follow-on test and evaluation or FOT&E, is designed to settle that score. "FOT&E was added to address untested items and to validate fixes to problems found in IOT&E," McGettrick explains. "However, our primary focus for FOT&E is the Raptor's air-to-ground capability."
The Raptor's initial air-to-ground capability centers on the 1,000-pound GBU-32 joint direct attack munition, or JDAM. The F/A-22 can carry two of these precision-guided bombs in the main weapon bays. The software required to drop JDAM, not available for IOT&E, was loaded onto Raptors at the 422nd in early 2005.
The 422nd will perform three primary mission types during FOT&E: surface attack, strategic attack, and retargeting. "For FOT&E, we fly to the northern range with the aircraft in an air-to-ground configuration," explains Maj. Orlando Sanchez, the F/A-22 division commander at the 422nd who is also involved in planning the tests. "We either simulate JDAMs or carry actual JDAMs on board. For surface attack missions, we go against a force of adversaries and try to hit targets inside simulated surface-to-air missile engagement zones. For strategic attack missions, we hit higher value and more heavily defended targets. For retargeting missions, we sit out on a tanker and wait to get tasked. Once tasked for the mission, we program the JDAMs for the unplanned target."
The FOT&E missions include about seven live missile shots and approximately twenty live JDAM drops. Pilots and official observers critique the aircraft's performance and score and grade each mission accordingly. During the mission, data is recorded on the aircraft by an instrumentation data acquisition package, or IDAP—a large orange box carried on the right side of the main weapon bay. "We generate a mountain of data, which is analyzed by a team of engineers," Sanchez says. "The aircraft has to meet a large set of criteria before we can classify a mission successful."
Operational test pilots at the 422nd have already gained some initial, positive experience with the JDAM. "Our first air-to-ground missions were eye-opening," explains Garland. "We know what this weapon is designed to do, but combining it with the capabilities of the Raptor creates some additional advantages. We can drop JDAMs deep within a heavily guarded area and escape undetected. We can drop JDAMs from longer ranges, from outside a radar threat ring, and make ground attacks safer. The Raptor is the only platform that can use the JDAM like this."
Dominating The Battlespace
Air-to-ground capability transforms the F/A-22. Pilots at the 422nd use the term battlespace dominance to denote the transformation. "The F/A-22 has evolved from an air superiority platform, like the F-15C, and from a strike asset, like the F-16 or F-15E, to a weapon system that can dominate the battlespace," explains Garland, who accumulated more than 2,000 hours in the F-15C Eagle. His Eagle experience includes a four-year stint as an instructor in the Air Force Weapons School at Nellis.
"We knock down air threats in an F-15C to pave the way for the strike assets," he continues. "The F-15's radar cross section forces us to stop pursuing aerial targets when we encounter a SAM threat. The Raptor's stealth, on the other hand, allows us to run down those targets and destroy them. We can also drop bombs on those SAM threats or on any other target. With our global strike concept, we can attack anything in the air and sanitize a battlespace. When I am out of missiles to shoot and bombs to drop, I can continue to support the fight with my integrated avionics by flying as a sensor platform and using my data link to project everything the airplane can see to other assets in the area and to the leadership back at headquarters."
Pilots and personnel at the 422nd play an important part in capitalizing on the potential of the F/A-22 as part of this global strike concept. "The term global strike, which refers to the integration of the low-observable assets into a strike package, has been around long before the Raptor showed up," notes Sanchez. "The B-2 and the F-117 have been working together for a while. The F/A-22, however, rounds out the full complement of aircraft needed to implement the concept.
"Each aircraft has unique capabilities," continues Sanchez. "Together they add up to a force that can penetrate and destroy highly sophisticated integrated air defense networks. The vision General [John] Jumper [Air Force Chief of Staff] laid out for global strike is a 'kick down the door' force, a collection of air assets that locate and destroy targets in a heavily defended country. The Raptor brings a highly effective air-to-ground capability to that mission as well as an offensive air-to-air capability."
Sanchez and other F/A-22 pilots have flown actual global strike missions at Nellis in recent weeks, including a night mission with three B-2s, four F-117s, two Raptors, three EA-6B jammers, and a tanker aircraft going against six aggressor aircraft and a SAM threat. "We took out the aerial threat, and then defended the F-117 and the B-2 against the SAM sites," explains Sanchez.
"We can use the Raptor to attack high threat areas with precision munitions and then fight our way back out—with or without support," adds McGettrick. "Any airspace, any situation. That's what the Raptor brings to the table."
Beyond The Four Pillars
Anyone associated with the F/A-22 program can cite the strengths of the aircraft in terms of four primary capabilities: maneuverability, supercruise, stealth, and sensor fusion. Each capability is fairly easy to describe independently. Explaining the interrelations that make the Raptor superior to every other fighter that preceded it, however, is trickier. Firsthand experience from the cockpit helps.
"The combination of stealth and supercruise reduces the range of a defensive system more than it would be reduced by stealth or speed alone," explains Maj. Alexus Grynkewich, chief of F/A-22 standards evaluation at the 422nd. "At subsonic speeds, the Raptor would not offer any real advantage over an F-117 in terms of stealth. At supersonic speeds, the Raptor is already out of range by the time a radar system might see it."
According to Grynkewich, the combination of maneuverability and speed offers another example of a combination advantage. "People typically think maneuverability is getting down to a slow-speed dogfight," he says. "We don't expect to get slow with the F/A-22. We will be flying at high speeds and high altitudes, taking long-range shots with air-to-air missiles or precision-guided munitions. The maneuverability provided by the aircraft's thrust vectoring is useful at these high altitudes where the air is so thin that the control surfaces, the flaps and ailerons, are less effective. Thrust vectoring allows us to make turns at those altitudes to get in the best position to launch weapons and escape detection."
Pilots And Maintainers
Eight F/A-22s will populate the ramp at the 422nd when FOT&E spins up in late summer 2005. Ten pilots will be assigned to the Raptors. About half of them come from the F-15C and the other half from the F-16 and F-15E. Six of the pilots are graduates of the USAF Weapons School and one is a graduate from Test Pilot School.
"We will soon get an F-117 pilot as well," notes McGettrick. "He will bring several generations of experience in maximizing stealth. The F-117 community has been doing stealthy air-to-ground attack for twenty years now. We've been doing air-to-ground attacks for about four months in the F/A-22. We think the F-117 experience will be beneficial."
The aircraft are maintained by about 120 maintenance personnel of the 57th Maintenance Group, which falls under the command of the 57th Wing at Nellis. The 422nd TES falls under the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group, which is part of the 53rd Wing based at Eglin AFB, Florida. Though the 57th is getting some maintainers straight out of technical school, most have transitioned to the F/A-22 from other aircraft.
SSgt. Chris McLean, a Raptor crew chief, brings more than eight years of F-15 experience to the F/A-22. "The transition is like starting over," he says, "because the Raptor is a totally different airplane. Just getting comfortable with an airplane takes about six weeks for someone with experience." The portable maintenance aid, or PMA, accounts for most of that learning curve according to McLean. Ground crews use the ruggedized laptops to launch the F/A-22, to fuel it, to rig its flight controls, and to consult for almost every maintenance task.
"We don't use paper forms or technical orders," says McLean. "All the information we need is right there in the laptop. If I needed to pull a starter in an F-15, I had to look up the technical order number and determine which book of which volume contained the information I needed. Then I had to check out the technical orders at the support section and lug all of the books back to the flight line. With the F/A-22, I just determine what category the starter is in on my laptop and then click on that category. The tech data appears on the screen. I go to the jet with only my toolbox and my PMA."
In his almost three years of experience maintaining the F/A-22, McLean is impressed with the progress he has seen. "The recent aircraft modifications have been great improvements," he notes. "The software loads are making the jet better as well. The Raptor is more stable and more reliable. We recently flew thirty-three sorties without one ground abort."
Sgt. Gaylon Simmons, a weapons expediter for the F/A-22 at Nellis, has been similarly pleased with the Raptor. "Loading an AIM-120 on the aircraft is extremely easy," he says. "We simply attach each missile to two sets of hooks, front and back. We don't have to line up the angles like we do on other aircraft. On an F-16, for example, the tilt and roll angle has to be perfect before we can slide a missile on the rail. On the Raptor, the missile attaches and slides right on."
More Than Raptors
The F/A-22 is the latest addition to the 422nd, which also performs operational testing for the A-10, F-15C, F-15E, and the F-16. The unit operates six or seven of each aircraft type.
"The Raptor is an airplane in operational test," explains McGettrick. "We are releasing new software and making hardware changes. We are still finding and fixing problems. But we are also doing the same sort of work with every other airplane in this squadron. We receive the newest operational flight programs for all of these aircraft before the software is released to the rest of the Air Force. The same applies to hardware. For example, we're flying an A-10C with a new glass cockpit and the F-16, F-15E, and A-10C with new targeting pods. Our job here in the 422nd is to wring out improvements before the aircraft are delivered to the fleet."
Wringing out software and hardware improvements falls under the heading of force development evaluation, which is performed separately from IOT&E and FOT&E. While IOT&E and FOT&E are government-mandated and overseen by the Air Force Operational and Test Center, FDE is directed by Air Combat Command and implemented by the 53rd Wing.
"Our work on FDE informs the F/A-22 tactics manual," notes Garland. "We also write academics describing each system on the airplane. If we're writing about the radar, for example, a pilot from the 422nd assigned to the radar writes a term paper describing how the radar functions. To gain more information about the radar, he works with the various contractors who designed and built the radar. Once the paper is completed, the pilot teaches F/A-22 operators at Langley everything he learned about the radar."
The 422nd also has experts who specialize in tactical topics, such as basic fighter maneuvering, air combat maneuvers, tactical intercepts, dissimilar air combat training, and defensive counter-air. Every Raptor pilot at the 422nd specializes in at least one particular system and in one or more tactics.
"Like our other aircraft at the 422nd, the Raptor will continue to evolve," says McGettrick. "We will be leapfrogging between FOT&E and FDE for the F/A-22 in the coming years as we develop specific tactics for global strike and conduct specific test programs for tactics associated with new capabilities, such as the panoramic night vision goggles." The 422nd will conduct tests on every planned improvement before those improvements are fielded in the operational fleet.
"We are still writing the tactics and the tech orders, still getting new software," McGettrick continues. "Testing and evolving the F/A-22 is a monumental task for everyone involved—from the contractor, to the officials associated with it, to the pilots, to the maintainers. But it's a labor of love. We've all seen what the F/A-22 can do. The airplane is ninety percent there. No major obstacles remain. We are here to make this fighter live up to its potential and to prove to our country's leadership and to US tax-payers that they have made a good investment. I have no doubt we will succeed."
Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.
