work with our NATO allies to sharpen our
tactical skills and reaffirm our commitment
to the alliance’. He added: ‘During their
deployment, we were able to integrate
seamlessly into some of the largest fighter
exercises in Europe’. Col Novotny was
referring to Exercise ‘Iron Hand 16-3’, which
involved all three Lakenheath-based fighter
squadrons and Royal Air Force Eurofighter
Typhoons working with the F-22s in
large-force employment exercises (LFEs).
Lt Col Lehoski summarised: ‘The primary
reason for the trip was to train with our US
brethren at Lakenheath and with our allies
in the UK, reassure our NATO allies, and
demonstrate the ability for the 95th/301st
FS to deliver air dominance any time,
anywhere in Europe. We were fortunate
that the squadron had the experience from
the August deployment, which provided
continuity and a ton of lessons learned that
we were able to apply this time around.’The Raptors also forward deployed to
Romania and Lithuania and participated
in the centenary celebrations for the
formation of escadrille ‘La Fayette’ on April
20 with a four-ship flypast over Paris that
involved pilots from the 94th, 95th, and
301st Fighter Squadrons. The forward
deployment to Lithuania and Romania
was reportedly to demonstrate the
capabilities of the ‘Rapid Raptor’: taking
two jets forward with support assets on
a tanker, and being able to go anywhere
in the world with very little co-ordination
or notice.
Speaking of the operational tempo
within the Raptor community, Lt Col
Lehoski added: ‘Our ops tempo in the
Raptor community has always been high.
I’ve been in the community since 2006
and we have always been a high-demand,
low-density asset because there’s only
six operational squadrons’. He added: ‘Ithink the overseas operational tempo has
definitely increased over the past three to
five years.’
Fighter integration is one of the key
phrases you’ll hear around F-22 squadrons
these days. According to 1st Lt Jolly
Foss, 95th FS Raptor pilot, training with
the RAF Typhoons was one of the main
objectives. ‘There’s different capabilities
here, different airspace that we don’t have
access to back home and being able to
integrate with the three F-15 squadrons
and with the Typhoons has allowed us to
go through our exercise objectives’. Foss
added: ‘We had some long sorties, where
you send anywhere between 10 to 12 jets
on the ‘Blue Air’ side against 10 aircraft on
the ‘Red Air’ side, tactical sorties, where
we look into destroying targets on the
ground, and strictly defensive counter-air
[DCA], which is keeping the enemy from
approaching that line.’Top: F-22s from
the 95th Fighter
Squadron at
Tyndall AFB,
Florida, arrived
at Spangdahlem,
Germany, on
August 28, 2015.
This inaugural
F-22 training
deployment to
Europe is funded
by the European
Reassurance
Initiative.
USAF/A1C Luke
Kitterman
Above right: The
95th EFS pilots
that deployed to
Europe in 2016
pose for a shot
on their return to
Tyndall. USAFRAPTOR^9182-93 Frontline C.indd 91 28/09/2017 15:02