First Raptor Joins Langley Squadron

[Batgirl]

The F/A-22, the U.S. Air Force’s newest fighter plane, is far superior to the ones it’s replacing, said several officials and a pilot who has flown the plane. The service inducted the first Raptor into the 1st Fighter Wing here Feb. 11.

During the recently completed operational tests of the F/A-22, the plane beat all the ground- and air-based threats, and proved its capabilities as a network node, said Air Force Major Charles Corcoran, one of a handful of pilots to test-fly the plane.

Corcoran, a former F-15 pilot, has been flying the F/A-22 since February 2002. The early results from the plane’s Initial Operational Test and Evaluation, conducted by the Air Force’s Office of Test and Evaluation at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., were released Feb.1. They declared the plane to be “overwhelmingly effective.”

The tests, and the induction of the first plane at a Feb. 11 ceremony here attended by Virginia Republican Reps. Jo Ann Davis and Thelma Drake, come at a time when the Bush administration’s defense budget for 2006 and beyond proposes cutting the required number of F/A-22s from 279 to 183 — a $10 billion reduction.

Robert Stevens, CEO of the plane’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, said the needs of the Air Force will be determined by the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review, which is expected to address the service’s future force structure. The Air Force is expected to advocate retaining a 279-plane fleet.

The recently completed tests showed that the plane is far ahead of the F-15s it is replacing, Corcoran said.

Flying the F-15, “I didn’t know I was getting shot at when flying against SA-10 and SA-12” surface-to-air missile batteries, Corcoran said. The plane’s “radar warning receiver didn’t have a lot of capabilty against those threats.”

But the F/A-22’s integrated avionics, which bring together the communications, radar and navigation systems in one cockpit screen, “not only can see the threat but can arrange it … give me precise information and what mode the [enemy] is in. Having that awareness is 95 percent of the battle,” Corcoran said.

The 1st Fighter Wing is expected to fly the first squadron of F/A-22s by December 2005.

Col. Frank Gorenc, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing, said the base is preparing the maintenance and repair facilities required to fly the first squadron of the planes — a stealthy, supersonic plane whose maintenance routine is highly computerized and includes paper-free documentation and training.

Maintenance officials said the plane’s stealthy surfaces, unlike the B-2 and F-117 airplanes, don’t need special hangars to maintain and repair.

Defense News

Langley has two F/A-22 Raptors right now. There is the maintanance trainer (basically we break it and fix it) and the actual working 22 which is flown about 16 times a month. It is part of the 27th AMU (Aircraft Maint. Unit) which has it's own brand new hanger, as well as other new buildings specifically designed for the 22.