TAKING A LOOK BEHIND THE HEADLINES
BYBY ROBERT BECKHUSEN ROBERT BECKHUSEN
14 November 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
RIGHT FIGHTER —
WRONG MISSION
A
PAIR OF F-22 Raptors
from Alaska’s Joint Base
Elmendorf-Richardson
scrambled and headed
toward the Aleutian Islands
to intercept two Russian
Aerospace Forces Tu-95 ‘Bear’ long-range
bombers on September 1, 2018. It’s
possible that the lumbering turboprop
strikers — capable of launching
long-range cruise missiles — were
conducting mock attack runs targeting
US radars in Alaska.
These intercepts occur several times
per year. In May 2018, two F-22s also
intercepted and visually identiied a pair
of Tu-95s in the region. The stealthy,
twin-engine ighters escorted the
Russian bombers for 40 minutes —
these are the only US ighters in the area
that can fulill this role.
The USAF is coming round to the notion
that it may have spread its Raptors too
thinly, and is needlessly expending light
hours having them conduct missions that
could be covered by less sophisticated
types. Every minute in the air comes
at a huge maintenance cost. Arguably,
an aerial intercept is not the place for
a stealth ighter — they need to get
close-in and signal an intruding aircraft
to back of. These Alaska-based F-22s also
frequently ly with external fuel tanks
given the travel distances required, totally
spoiling their stealthy characteristics.
In short, the USAF is burning hours
having its Raptors conduct routine
missions instead of preparing for what
they were designed to do — the kind
of high-end conlict that all senior USAF
oicers are told to be ready for.
These concerns were echoed in
a summer 2018 report from the
Government Accountability Oice —Congress’ oicial watchdog — which
noted ongoing shortfalls in the Raptor
leet’s availability and in pilot skills.
The F-22 was designed for escort
missions and air-to-air combat in an
intensive, near-peer conlict versus the
most advanced Russian and Chinese
ighters in service. Every hour spent
lying these long alert missions adds
to the ighters’ maintenance burden
and takes up time that could be spent
training Raptor pilots for high-end air-to-
air combat.
‘These challenges have afected aircraft
availability rates, which have remained
below air force standards,’ the GAO
stated. ‘The small size of F-22 squadrons
and wings has contributed to low aircraft
availability rates.’Expanding force
As the USAF says it needs to dramatically
expand its ighter force, it needs the
right tools for the job in the right
places. Using F-22s to police the
skies is like using a high-end
sports car for traic cop
duty. The machine
gets the job done,
but so would a
cheaper platform.
In practice,
60-year-old
Russian
bombers
and close
air support duty in the desert are
wearing out America’s most powerful air
superiority ighter.
While the F-22 community needs to
be seen to be pulling its weight in the
wider CAF (Combat Air Forces), this
means that around 15 per cent of the
leet can be non-operational at any givenA 154th Wing Hawaii Air
National Guard F-22 Raptor
flies during the Rim of the
Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise
this summer. USAF/TSgt
Samantha Mathison