combat aircraft

F-22 Raptors and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets

descended on RAF Lakenheath in October

for a unique training exercise that brought

together a wide range of fi ghter hardware.

REPORT AND PHOTOS

Jamie Hunter T

HE 48TH FIGHTER Wing at

RAF Lakenheath, UK, played

host to an impressive blend of

visiting  ghters for a unique

dissimilar air combat training

(DACT) exercise in October.

The unnamed exercise drew in eight

F/A-18E/F Super Hornets from Carrier Air

Wing One (CVW-1) and six F-22A Raptors

from the 94th Expeditionary Fighter

Squadron — manned by 27th FS pilots

and maintainers — which joined the

resident F-15C Eagles and F-15E Strike

Eagles for a period of intense air-to-air

 ghter integration.

Pairs of Hornets were drawn from

VFA-11 ‘Red Rippers’, VFA-22 ‘Fighting

Checkmates’, VFA-81 ‘Sunliners’ and

VFA-136 ‘Knighthawks’. They all arrived

at Lakenheath from the USS Harry S.

Truman (CVN 75) on October 5 along

with the Raptors, which were on the way

home from Operation ‘Inherent Resolve’

(OIR) in the Middle East.

The 94th Expeditionary Fighter

Squadron (EFS)  ew more combat

sorties and hours on a per-aircraft basis

than any deployed F-22 squadron ever

during their time ‘down-range’. All told,

the squadron logged more than 590

sorties and over 4,600  ight hours,

dropping 4,250lb of ordnance and

‘deterring 587 enemy aircraft’, according

to a news release. The latter fact

presumably refers to Russian and Syrian

aircraft operating in the OIR region.

Having ferried its Raptors to the UK,

the 94th handed them over to the 27th

A VFA-211 ‘Checkmates’

F/A-18F gets airborne from

Lakenheath for a mission

on October 11 that included

24 fi ghters.

http://www.combataircraft.net // December 2018 85