In many ways, the F-22 Raptor (“Predator”) is an insurance policy the United States air force. While the rest of the air force is preparing to participate or already involved in the implementation of war of low intensity, the fleet of F-22 is an elite avant-garde force, and focused it solely on the reflection of the latest threats. “We began to focus our attention on the reflection of the most contemporary threats, said Colonel Pete Fesler (Fesler). — Actually, we are moving away from our standards, when we participate in operation “Steadfast determination” (Operation Inherent Resolve), that is, in the campaign against Islamic state (banned in Russia organization), and ongoing it support. The low-intensity conflicts is not our bread and butter.”
Even in the moment when in 2002 the year began testing the F-22 in real conditions, he demonstrated incredible capabilities in the training battle and scored one after another convincing victory. And when in the course of combat training F-22 faced the most serious threats — for example, with modern Russian fighters like su-35, s-300V4 and s-400, rarely he was “downed”. “The loss of the F-22 is a rarity, regardless of the threats that we use during training”, — said Fesler.
Russia and China are currently developing new fighter jets and missiles ground-to-air, and therefore the challenge of achieving air superiority over the increasingly dangerous combat area, falls to a small group of pilots of the U.S. air force, control the powerful F-22 Raptor produced by Lockheed Martin.
The F-22 was developed in the last years of the cold war. It has reduced visibility and a high ceiling, and his task was to defeat the most dangerous weapons that the Soviet Union might use against the United States and NATO during the third world war in Europe. However, the end of the cold war and the ensuing collapse of the Soviet Union deprived F-22 primary mission — or at least so it was assumed. The Obama administration canceled the program for the production of F-22 in 2008, and just ordered 195 aircraft — 187 serial — as the experts in the government came from the fact that the war between the States with reconciliation to the most modern weapons a thing of the past. Currently, however, it becomes increasingly obvious that they were wrong.
Earlier this year the then Minister of defense Ashton Carter, in one of his speeches said that the world is returning to great power rivalry. “We will be ready to resist the enemy, armed with the most modern military equipment. This is what we call full spectrum. In our budget, in our plans and in our actions we must show our potential enemies if they unleash a war, we will have sufficient funds to win. Because the force that is able to contain the conflict, must show that she can dominate in the conflict,” said Carter, speaking in February at a meeting of the Washington economic club (Economic Club of Washington). In this context, Russia and China are the most serious contenders. They have developed and continue to develop the most advanced weapons systems that threaten the preservation of our advantages in certain areas. In some cases, they develop weapons and methods of warfare, relying on rapid achievement of their goals before, according to them, we will be able to answer.”
In fact, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union Russia during the economic and social crisis in the 1990-ies was able to save as much as possible, its the best enterprises of the military-industrial complex. Despite serious challenges, Russia has been able to develop and adopt the most advanced weapons such as su-35S (“Flanker” E), s-300V4, s-400 and others. Meanwhile, a rising China had a very serious modernization of their armed forces in this country have developed a new fighter, new rocket the earth-air (in particular, the formidable J-16 and HQ-9). While Washington has ceased to monitor the sources of potential challenges and focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the leaders in Beijing and Moscow continued to modernize its armed forces in order to be able to put America in an impossible position in the event of a conflict in the future.
Why America needs the F-22 Raptor (especially today)
Today, when the voices and the right and left require action in Syria, where the Kremlin supports Assad’s regime, its traditional ally, the Pentagon comes from the fact that he is forced to rely on small in number fleet of F-22 Raptor, if there is a need to establish a no-fly zone in this war torn country. The F-22 is only in service with the United States fighter, which can count on Washington to destroy such modern anti-aircraft missiles as “Armour-C1”, s-300V4 and s-400, which Moscow sent to Syria. In addition, it is the only aircraft of the U.S. air force, which in its capabilities has a huge advantage over these Russian fighters of the last generation as the su-30M and su-35S (both of these Russian aircraft were placed in this region).
“Our task is to break through the door, — said the commander of the 1st fighter wing (1st Fighter Wing) and a veteran among the pilots of the F-22 Colonel Pete Fesler during my visit to air force base “Langley”, located in the state of Virginia. We are undoubtedly the leaders in all branches of the armed forces, which we can refer because we have a plane, superior to the capabilities of all their opponents”.
Training matters
It is important to have the right tool, but even more important is the human dimension. Pilots and technical personnel should be appropriately trained, and they should be able to cope with any serious threat if they are sent to the combat area. I recently visited elite 1st fighter wing is an advanced unit, equipped with F-22 Raptor during a training readiness test. In contrast to these major exercises like Red flag (Red Flag) or exercises of the U.S. air force in preparation for deployment (the Weapons School’s Mission Employment Phase) — they are aimed at improving the skills of the pilots, the exercise of the verification of readiness involves the verification of the operational capabilities of units deployed. In fact, this is the dress rehearsal before sending units to war.
“The pilots of F-22, although they are a critical component, are only a part of the team. Nothing happens if the equipment does not prepare the aircraft for the flight; you also need to take care of stealth coatings; need to produce bombs and missiles and then experts on arms have to load them in the plane, managers should determine the routes of flights; specialists in the field of intelligence needs to prepare the job you want to perform. All of these things need to connect, and if someone will lose the rhythm and fall behind, then nothing will work, — has told in conversation with me, Fesler showing me the Parking and maintenance of aircraft. The objective of these exercises was to get us outside of normal operations within the garrison; to rapidly mobilize, deploy, prepare the aircraft, and then begin a sustained combat deployment. Another way to obtain this type of training is not there.”
As I said, Fesler, the idea of such exercises is how to get six squadrons that make up one wing, plus the staff 192nd fighter wing of the air National guard of Virginia and the support unit and place them in various parts of the base in a simulated difficult conditions. In order to exercise that wing was ordered to “prepare to deploy” at a certain theatre and to do everything in order to be able to quickly begin operation. After receiving deployment orders for this wing and his staff had to pack all the necessary equipment support, as well as to prepare aircraft to a theater of war, and difficult to carry out the deployment within a few hours. And, indeed, during my visit two squadrons of F-22 of this wing were placed in two different parts of the base and operated in tents on the line of mooring and maintenance of aircraft. “All these actions are carefully coordinated,” he said Fesler.
The main “insurance” policy
In many ways, the F-22 Raptor (“Predator”) is an insurance policy the United States air force. While the rest of the air force is preparing to participate or already involved in the implementation of war of low intensity, the fleet of F-22 is an elite avant-garde force, and focused it solely on the reflection of the latest threats. “We began to focus our attention on the reflection of the most contemporary threats, said Colonel Pete Fesler (Fesler). — Actually, we are moving away from our standards, when we participate in operation “Steadfast determination” (Operation Inherent Resolve), that is, in the campaign against Islamic state (banned in Russia organization), and ongoing it support. The low-intensity conflicts is not our bread and butter.”
Even in the moment when in 2002 the year began testing the F-22 in real conditions, he demonstrated incredible capabilities in the training battle and scored one after another convincing victory. And when in the course of combat training F-22 faced the most serious threats — for example, with modern Russian fighters like su-35, s-300V4 and s-400, rarely he was “downed”. “The loss of the F-22 is a rarity, regardless of the threats that we use during training”, — said Fesler.
Why the F-22 dominate
In fact, the problem for the F-22 is to determine a sufficient number of objectives, as well as serious threats to the pilots were able to get useful training. Another problem is that this plane has such great potential — from the point of view of speed, acceleration, stealth, sensors, and maneuverability that he can compensate for tactical errors.
“He is able to correct many of the shortcomings from the pilot; you can have a really bad day, and the plane will still show the phenomenal opportunities,’ said a senior pilot of F-22 Callsign “Rumble” (Crash). — The mere fact that you’ve won the air battle, does not mean that you did a good job. And the fact that you lost, it does not mean that you ruined it. We create scripts to monitor that, and sometimes the boys died during a training exercise, although they did everything right, and at other times they do everything wrong, but, however, achieve complete success. With this plane is much easier to survive.”
To prepare pilots for this exercise, the 1st fighter wing uses a combination of training aircraft T-38 and F-22, which act as “red sky” (Red Air) — they reproduce those threats that are “advanced” “Flannery”, that is, the su-35. Meanwhile, the onboard computers of the F-22, and the associated database handle threats from enemy anti-aircraft missile systems such as s-300V4 and s-400. During one flight the F-22 was forced to deal with the combination of the “most modern su” and a very serious threat on the ground — this was told to me a young professional arms of the 1st fighter wing F-22 Callsign “Bullet” (Bullet) — a graduate elite School on the use of weapons of the U.S. air force (Air Force’s Weapons School), which was one of the main planners of these exercises.
“We usually conduct exercises against the biggest and most serious threats, because we want to experience against the latest threats, said I arms expert with the Callsign “Bullet”. — What is the worst-case scenario and what we should do in such a case — because we want to conduct training at the highest level and extremely close to real combat, and if a doctrine cannot be at high level, then we simply have not done your job. In this case, it us much easier to carry out their work”.
Because of the tremendous capabilities of the F-22 (and its pilots are the elite of the elite) “Red sky”, in fact, was forced to beat Predators in number. The pilot with the call sign “Rumble,” talked about one scenario in which four F-22 went into battle at the same time with ten enemy fighters fourth generation su-35, which is able to “regenerate”, that is, to return to life. “This is somewhat more than the usual representatives of the fourth generation,” — said the “Rumble”. — We do not hold teachings against those things that have not yet adopted. We struggle with the most modern, existing threats, what we can find.”
As a rule, the representative of the “blue” F-22 destroys the enemy from a distance. In fact, according to Fesler if the enemy plane managed to survive, and then appeared in the area of “contact” — that is, was in the line of sight — and found the F-22, it means that there was some very serious error. This is usually followed by a thorough analysis in order to understand what went wrong. In fact, all the pilots with whom I spoke, in one voice assured me that debriefing is the most important part of the training sorties. However, the pilots of the F-22 is actively preparing for aerial combat in conditions of direct visibility. “We usually operate on the high versus the current maximum of the enemy, — said the expert with a call sign “Rumble”. We believe that prepared in the West the pilots of F-22 are the most serious threat we face.”
Big upgrades (something you need)
A recent addition to the F-22 was a new upgrade program Block 3.2 A/5 Update. In the end, the last updating is the process missile AIM-9X Sidewinder, produced by Raytheon, and defeat the purposes of the non-zero side corners — these opportunities have long wanted to the pilots of F-22. The missile AIM-9X is a significant gain for the F-22, all the pilots of the 1st fighter wing, with whom I spoke. This new weapon is many times increases the already huge. deadly force F-22. Missiles AIM-9X and AIM-120D AMRAAM, manufactured by Raytheon, will be fully integrated into the F-22 upgrade, Increment 3.2 B, which has yet to be conducted.
Even the F-22 has no system for display on a helmet (HMCS), which will allow you to use all available missiles AIM-9X capability. This device works on many of the American warplanes — and on most foreign. The lack of helmet-mounted display in most cases will put the F-22 at a great disadvantage in melee — if the aircraft can not use all of its available features.
The US air force still plans to equip F-22 helmet-mounted display, but the pilots of the 1st fighter wing saying it’s not an absolute necessity. The F-22, as a rule, can provide air superiority and without such a system. In fact, according to Fesler, even without missiles AIM-9X and HMCS system with no pilots the F-22 is often suitable to close the distance and ambush the other aircraft in sight. “I can sneak up to the enemy, said Fesler. Driving the F-22, I quietly approach the other aircraft, and they even don’t notice me. You just attach them to the tail and say to yourself, why waste a rocket when you have a gun”.
In the end, the F-22 is the only fifth generation fighter aircraft intended to gain air superiority in an increasingly hostile world where threats are becoming every day more serious, and therefore, in the interests of the air force to do everything to ensure that its capabilities are at the highest level. In accordance with the currently available plans, the F-22 will get the system that is displayed on the helmet by 2020, however, similar programs in the past were victims of budget cuts.
“It would be great to have such a helmet, but radically it doesn’t change anything,’ said the pilot with the call sign “Rumble”. — However, helmet-mounted display would be a great help to us”.
