A FORCE IN READINESS
‘Cruising around in an invisible jet at
60,000ft ying at Mach 2, our adversaries
know we’re pretty good at the air-to-air
game’, smiles Col Pete ‘Coach’ Fesler,
commander of the 1st Fighter Wing
(FW) at Langley until summer 2017.
The 1st FW commander has two F-22
squadrons under his charge: the 27th
and 94th FS, plus a new aggressor unit of
T-38A Talons in the 71st Fighter Training
Squadron (FTS).
The two Raptor squadrons are the
oldest units in the US Air Force, tracing
their roots back to WW1, and both are
celebrating centenaries in 2017. ‘The
squadrons trace their lineage all the
way back to the Lafayette Escadrille,
the American squadron ying for the
French at the risk of their own citenship’,
explains Fesler. ‘Today, the 94th FS ‘Spads’
owns that history and heritage, and both
squadrons have operated continuously
since then.’
The 1st FW — originally the 1st Pursuit
Group — truly owns its reputation as
the cradle of American ghter aviation.
In WW2 the 27th FS scored the rst
American aerial victory in the European
Theater of Operations and the wing’s
squadrons have since turned their hand
to the Cold War alert mission across
northern-tier States, to F-4 Phantom II
training for Vietnam, and then becoming
the rst operational F-15A Eagle
wing in 1974.
‘On August 2, 1990, inside 48 hours,
the wing deployed to Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia, for Operation ‘Desert Shield’’, says
Col Fesler. ‘When I talk about readiness,
I say to my airmen ‘you’re not going to
know when it’s coming’. This was the
rst operational Raptor wing. In 2008 we
deployed to Kadena and we’ve been back
to Japan as well as to Guam, plus multiple
Middle East deployments. The 27th FS
became the rst Raptors to be blooded
in combat in 2014, and then the 94th FS
went back out there and conducted the
rst operational use of the GBU-39 Small
Diameter Bomb.’
Col Fesler calls the F-22 ‘a tactical asset
with strategic impact’. ‘There’s signi cant
messaging that goes along with the
deployment of Raptors into a theatre’, he
says. ‘So the demand for them is very high.
In fact, between 2010 and 2013 the F-22
had the highest deployment rates of all
the ghter communities, with constant
rotations out to the Middle East and the
Paci c. We aren’t tied to any particular
region — in fact, each of the combat-coded Raptor squadrons is postured to go
anywhere they are needed.’
Maintaining readiness to deploy is
something that each and every person
on the squadrons is well aware of. As
well as keeping up the levels of training
required, having jets in perfect shape is
vitally important. Squadrons ‘on a short
leash’ to deploy have to maintain the LO
integrity of their ghters — it’s the ace up
their sleeve.
With just six combat-coded Raptor
squadrons, it’s easy to see why Air Force
leaders openly state that they simply don’t
have enough Raptors and that production
was cut prematurely short at 187 jets.
The last icker of hope that production
might be restarted seems to have been
extinguished and the USAF has now
set its sights rmly on F-35A Lightning
II production and a new Penetrating
Counter-Air ‘sixth-generation’ ghter. But
most remember that pushing both the
F-15 and F-22 through to production
were huge battles for the USAF and that
it will take a lot of ‘push’ to realise a sixth-
generation ghter.
For the Raptor, once current
modi cations have been completed,
the overall F-22A eet will comprise 139
combat-coded Block 30/35 aircraft, 32
training Block 20s, plus 12 test-assigned
Block 20/30/35s, and two pre-Block jets.
Two jets have been lost in accidents.THE NEED FOR AIR DOMINANCE
In scally challenged times — and bearing
in mind the fact that a manned USAF
aircraft hasn’t red an air-to-air missile in
anger since 1999 — it’s easy to see why
some politicians may voice ill-informed
doubts over the need to pour billions
of taxpayers’ dollars into high-end air
superiority ghters. Col Fesler concedes:
‘It’s very di cult to articulate the need for
air-to-air, but the simple fact is that without
air superiority, you lose. You cannot
operate without that necessary condition.
Because we so soundly defeated the Iraqi
Air Force and because we have 15 years of
operating in permissive environments, we
have lost sight of the fact that you don’t
automatically have air superiority, you
achieve it.’
The F-22 squadron name boards at
Langley reveal a large in ux of young,
enthusiastic lieutenants and a mix of
older heads, many of whom come from
the Virginia Air National Guard’s (ANG)
embedded 192nd FW, which o ers 26
combat-ready pilots for the two Raptor
squadrons to supplement the active-duty‘CRUISING
AROUND IN AN
INVISIBLE JET AT
60,000FT FLYING
AT MACH 2, OUR
ADVERSARIES
KNOW WE’RE
PRETTY GOOD AT
THE AIR TO AIR
GAME’
COL PETE ‘COACH’ FESLER
Top: Sqn Ldr
‘Duzza’ and Maj
‘Bullet’ show
o the complex
panel lines of the
Raptor.
Bottom left
to right: An
impressive line of
Raptors in their
sun shelters at
Langley.
A brisk walk to
the ight line
for two 94th FS
pilots.
With engines
howling, a pair
of Raptors taxies
out for the
afternoon ‘go’.(^52) RAPTOR
50-63 1st FW C.indd 52 28/09/2017 14:50