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Tyndall pilot sets unique milestone Citat:Lt. Col. Tom “House” Kafka, Florida Air National Guard Headquarters Det. 1 vice commander and 325th Training Support Squadron assistant director of operations, recently became the first person with 2,000 hours in the F-15C to clock over 1,000 hours in the F-22.
U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth jets provide kinetic situational awareness over Syria
Citat:At the beginning of July, U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor jets had flown only 204 sorties out of 44,000 launched by the U.S.-lead coalition against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Little more than a month ago, the multirole stealth combat planes deployed to Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE had dropped 270 bombs on targets located in 60 of the 7,900 locations hit by the other aircraft supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
Even though the largest number of air strikes is carried out by other assets, it looks like the role played by the (once troubled) F-22 is pivotal to ensure the safety of the other aircraft involved in the air campaign: the Raptors act as “electronic warfare enabled sensor-rich multi-role aircraft” escorting strike packages into and out of the target area while gathering details about the enemy systems and spreading intelligence with other assets supporting the mission to improve the overall situational awareness.
“We are operating regularly in Iraq and Syria. The F-22’s advanced sensors and low-observable characteristics enable us to operate much closer to non-coalition surface-to-air missiles and fighter aircraft with little risk of detection,” said Lt. Col. J. (name withheld for security reasons) in a recent 380th Air Expeditionary Wing release. “We provide increased situational awareness for other coalition aircraft while simultaneously delivering precision air-to-ground weapons. This allows us to reduce the risk to our forces while mitigating the risk to civilian casualties, one of our highest priorities in this conflict. It is a true multirole aircraft.”
In simple words, the F-22 pilot leverage advanced onboard sensors, as the AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, to collect valuable details about the enemy Order of Battle, then they share the “picture” with attack planes, command and control assets, as well as Airborne Early Warning aircraft, while escorting other manned or unmanned aircraft towards the targets. As happened when they facilitated the retaliatory air strikes conducted by the Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16s after the burning alive of the pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh captured on Dec. 24, 2014.
Needless to say, every now and then they can also attack their own targets using Precision Guided Munitions: two 1,000-lb GBU-32 JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) or 8 GBU-39 small diameter bombs, “which have been successfully employed against key ISIL targets. [The SDB] is extremely accurate from very long distances and has the lowest collateral damage potential of any weapon in our inventory.”
Therefore, although this may not be what the F-22 was conceived for, the U.S.’s premier air superiority fighter is excelling in a new role: making other aircraft more survivable in contested airspaces like Syria and Iraq.
Citat:The 71st Fighter Squadron will return to duty in a reactivation ceremony Friday on Langley Air Force Base.
It will have a new name and mission. The airmen will be part of the 71st Fighter Training Squadron, flying T-38 Talons to give realistic training for 1st Fighter Wing F-22 pilots, Langley officials say. There are 17 aircraft in the new squadron.
In essence, the T-38s play the 'bad guy' as the F-22 Raptors use their radar capabilities and various tactics to locate and intercept them, replicating real-world threats Raptor pilots face.
Citat:Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary, told reporters Monday that a deployment of F-22s is heading to Europe for training exercises "very soon." Details of the rotation, such as where it will be based and the size of the Raptor fleet deploying, were not shared due to what James called operational security reasons.
Citat:Welsh then specifically called out the Eurofighter Typhoon as an example of a plane that the F-22 would benefit from training alongside.
"We have an aircraft with pretty advanced capabilities, and we need, and they would like, for us to be able to interoperate in multiple type scenarios," Welsh said. "And being able to train side by side with them and do that kind of training is really, really important for us. And that's what this is for."
Dopuna: 28 Avg 2015 14:31
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Citat:Four F-22A Raptor stealth jets will arrive at Spangdahlem airbase later today, to start the deployment in Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
