The F-22 Raptor completed its first operational deployment in October when eight aircraft from the 27th fighter squadron at Langley AFB, Virginia, were flown to Hill AFB, Utah, to participate in combat training exercises.
They were accompanied on the 2,000-mile journey by two KC-10 Extenders that refueled the F-22 aircraft during the cross-country flight and transported some of the more than 150 Langley airmen sent to support the two-week deployment.
The first exercise Langley Raptors and Air Force personnel participated in was Combat Hammer at the Utah Test and Training Range where pilots dropped inert 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions in realistic combat scenarios. "More than half of our pilots have never dropped a bomb," noted Lt. Col. James Hecker, commander of the 27th FS. A former F-15C pilot, Hecker had never dropped a bomb himself before climbing into the cockpit of an F-22. He was the first pilot from the 27th FS to drop one of the GPS-guided JDAMs during this deployment — a direct hit.
Five Raptors participated on the first day of bombing, each loaded with two JDAMs. In all, Langley pilots dropped a total of twenty-two JDAMs during the deployment.
In addition to preparing, loading, and dropping bombs, maintenance personnel and pilots from the 27th FS and its parent unit, the 1st Fighter Wing, practiced two techniques for quickly recovering the F-22 aircraft from one mission and launching the aircraft for its next mission — hot pit refueling and combat turns. In hot pit refueling, the aircraft is refueled after a mission with engines and systems still running so the same pilot can perform a second mission in the shortest possible time, usually in just over thirty minutes. In combat turns, aircraft engines are shut down during maintenance checks and refueling, and a different pilot takes off for a second mission in the aircraft in the shortest possible time, usually about ninety minutes.
During the second week, the squadron participated in missions over the test ranges near Nellis AFB, Nevada. Pilots from the 27th FS got the chance to become familiar with the Raptor's advanced offensive stealth capabilities against simulated surface-to-air missile sites.
"If I were going to try to do what I did today in any aircraft other than the F-22, I'd be dead," said Maj. Chuck Corcoran, 27th FS assistant director of operations. "Pitting the Raptor against the simulated effectiveness of next-generation surface-to-air missile sites is an important step in gaining confidence in this air-plane's capabilities."
This style of obstacle-course training was new to many of the squadron's pilots. Even those who experienced it before knew missions against modern threat arrays were near-impossible before the F-22. "Every other legacy platform we have used up to this point would have forced us to plan an ingress route to avoid these threats," said Capt. Geoffrey Lohmiller, weapons and tactics chief of the 27th FS. "Now we have the capability to penetrate anti-access environments — a capability we proved to ourselves."
"We are taking a lot of information back home with us," said SMSgt. Steve Lebron of the 27th Aircraft Maintenance Unit. "We plan to implement changes that will make our entire team better at accomplishing any mission."
"This was a huge learning experience for us," said Lt. Col. Hecker. "The lessons we learned here will improve our next deployment."
"These types of training exercises are imperative to being ready for real-world scenarios," added Brig. Gen. Burt Field, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing. "This first deployment undoubtedly prepared our team for any mission tasking."
Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.
