time. Secondly, the F-22 is a boutique
aircraft; few in number and organized
in six operational squadrons (plus test
units). Two of those, the 90th and 525th
Fighter Squadrons, are at Elmendorf and
on call for alert missions. Critics also point
to their limited exposure to high-end
training in Alaska.
‘[F-22] squadron o cials from one
location estimated that they could
generate hundreds of additional training
sorties on an annual basis if they could
use the aircraft that are currently
dedicated to the alert mission,’ the
GAO noted.
The F-22 is maintenance-heavy, due
in part to its stealthy coatings. The USAF
has dispersed its F-22s across six bases,
but climate-controlled hangars are not in
place at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam
in Hawaii, Tyndall in Florida and Joint
Base Langley-Eustis, ‘thus exposing
them to [low observable]-degrading
environmental factors,’ the GAO notes.
By comparison, there are more than 960
active-duty F-16s in the USAF inventory
and in excess of 500 in storage. There is a
spares shortage for the out-of-production
Raptor, already requiring some
replacement pieces to be custom-made.
The USAF plans to base two F-35A
squadrons in Alaska by 2020 but saysthe Lightning IIs will not be used for
intercept missions.Safeguarding the Raptors
There’s growing open acknowledgement
within senior USAF circles that it didn’t
build su cient Raptors. The House
Armed Services Committee ordered the
ying branch to study the possibility of
restarting production two years ago, but
such a prospect would cost billions of
dollars for an aircraft packing technology
— albeit advanced technology — from
the early 1990s. Potential export partners
such as Japan, which could help o set
costs, were steered away from the F-
and towards the F-35.
The most obvious solution to not
burning out the Raptors is to replace
them on the alert mission. However, the
F-35s headed for Alaska are similarly less
than ideal candidates. Another option
is to pull F-22s back from partnership-
building exercises in which they y
with restrictions to protect their unique
features from prying eyes. Pilots are
meeting their projected ight hours, but
not necessarily on the high-end missions
they need to be prepared for.
The USAF’s push to increase adversary
air support should help mitigate some of
the problem. Roughly half of the 154thFighter Wing’s sorties — the wing has
20 F-22s — at Hickam are dedicated to
serving as in-house ‘red air’. This is seen
as a waste of valuable ight hours that
could be absorbed by other means.
Another possibility being mooted is not
necessarily restarting F-22 production,
but building a new fth-generation
hybrid ghter. In August, it was revealed
that Lockheed Martin proposed such an
aircraft to the USAF, merging the F-22’s
highly maneuverable airframe with the
F-35’s high-tech avionics, computer
systems and more advanced (less
maintenance-intensive) low-observable
coatings. The most likely customer for
such an aircraft would be Japan, which
would co-manufacture the aircraft with
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries designing
new, heavier wings. This would boost the
jet’s unrefueled combat radius from 460
miles for the F-22 to 700 miles.
Japan sought to acquire F-22s for years,
only to be rejected due to sensitivities
over the ghter’s technology. The other
issue is cost — a Lockheed-Mitsubishi
hybrid jet is estimated to come in at
around $216 million apiece for 70 jets
or $188 million for 140, according to the
Nikkei Asian Review.
It’s not a bad deal but it would come
at the price of revealing some of the
Raptor’s vaunted technology. However,
the USAF simply needs more jets. ‘To
remain the global leader and meet the
threats we face, America needs more
from its air force, and the air force is too
small for what the nation is asking us to
do,’ USAF Secretary Dr Heather Wilson
said in September.
Until the USAF buys more aircraft,
precious assets such as the Raptor will
be exhausted doing roles for which they
were never designed.Top: An F-22A
from Joint Base
Elmendorf-
Richardson takes
off from Yokota
Air Base, Japan,
during one of the
wing’s regular
deployments.
USAF/Yasuo
Osakabe
Below: F-22s
intercepted two
Russian Tu-
‘Bear’ bombers
on September
11 west of
mainland Alaska.
The Russian
bombers were
accompanied
by two Su-
‘Flankers’.
Homeland
defense is
NORAD’s top
priority and
Operation ‘Noble
Eagle’ applies to
all air sovereignty
and air defense
missions in North
America. US DoD16 November 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
THE BRIEFING // RIGHT FIGHTER — WRONG MISSION