Aviation Specials — F-22 Raptor (2017)

T

HE FUTURE OF US Air Force

air supremacy lies  rmly with

the F-22 community, even

as the USAF looks towards

sixth-generation  ghters and

the so-called Penetrating

Counter-Air (PCA) project.

For the USAF, maximising its current

Raptor force has become increasingly

crucial, in a time of pilot shortages

and high operational tempos. Regular

deployments and time spent on the road

have compounded pilot requirements.

With a type as expensive as the Raptor,

maintaining the requisite levels of pilots

and sticking to tough budgets is a careful

balancing act.

Underpinning this e ort with its Basic

(B) Course is the 43rd Fighter Squadron

at Tyndall AFB, Florida, which is the

Formal Training Unit (FTU) for the Raptor,

falling under Air Education and Training

Command (AETC). The squadron runs

two courses per year, each typically

including 14 B-Course students. It is also

responsible for cross-training between

four and eight pilots a year coming from

other Mission Design Series (MDS), and

the leadership track re-quali cations

such as new wing commanders returning

to the Raptor.

As with the F-35A, initial F-22 pilots

were ‘transition’ pilots; coming across

from existing  ghter communities

to seed initial Raptor cadre. Now it’s

primarily new ab initio pilots coming

straight out of the training pipeline,

enabling younger pilots to come to the

F-22, and for the Air Force to reap the full

value of their training.

‘At the start they selected twice as

many folks as they needed out of UPT

[Undergraduate Pilot Training] for the

Raptor and they competed all the

way through Introduction to Fighter

Fundamentals [IFF] phase,’ says Maj ‘Burn’,

a Raptor instructor pilot (IP) and former

F-15C pilot who was attached to the 43rd

FS. ‘Then they would select half of those

[as they completed IFF]. Initially, the

USAF ran a bridging course at Luke AFB,

Arizona, to further test those selected

out of IFF.’ At Luke, the prospective

Raptor pilots would  y in the resident

Training new F-22

Raptor pilots

falls to the 43rd

Fighter Squadron at

Tyndall AFB, which

holds the future

of US Air Force air

supremacy in its

hands.

RAPTOR

SCHOOLHOUSE

(^40) RAPTOR
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