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Langley to decide on F/A-22 squadron

An F/A-22


By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 8, 2003

HAMPTON -- The Air Force is expected to announce soon which of three F-15C squadrons based at Langley will become the first operational unit in the nation to fly the stealth F/A-22.

The chosen squadron's transition from the F-15C Eagle to the F/A-22 Raptor likely will begin in November or December of 2004, said Col. Frank Gorenc, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing and Langley Air Force Base.

``I'm excited to be here, because I'll be part of it,'' said Gorenc, who last month took command of the base and the wing, which includes the three F-15C squadrons and a host of support units.

Once the new planes arrive, the squadron would become fully operational with the Raptors in a little more than a year, Gorenc said. All three of the wing's fighter squadrons are expected to make the transition by the end of 2007.

The first squadrons to field a new aircraft serve as a proving ground for the maintenance and support units that keep them airborne, Gorenc said.

For instance, when the F-15 replaced the F-4, aircraft mechanics assumed the wheel stops used to keep the F-4s from rolling during engine start-ups would work fine with the new aircraft. Not so, Gorenc said; the more powerful F-15s could roll right over F-4 wheel stops when powering up.

``Those little details are what I'll have to worry about,'' he said.

Designed and built by Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Pratt and Whitney, the $83 million-per-copy F/A-22 has been derided as the most expensive aircraft in history. But proponents say it offers substantial improvements over the F-15C, which has been in service since 1979.

Both are single-seat aircraft designed to win dogfights, and the Eagle is still considered to be the Air Force's most sophisticated air-to-air interceptor, Gorenc said.

But with few opposing air forces left, even purebred fighters need to have some land-attack capabilities. So while the Eagle initially was crafted solely for air superiority against Soviet MiGs, the Raptor left the drawing board geared up to shoot down enemy fighters and then drop precision bombs on long-range targets.

The F-15C has a faster maximum speed -- 1,800 mph, more than 2.5 times the speed of sound -- but the F/A-22 can cruise long distances at 1.5 times the speed of sound without using afterburners, a trait that gives the aircraft superior fuel economy and range. Its maximum speed is listed at twice the speed of sound.

According to unclassified fact sheets, the F-15C's maximum range with external fuel tanks is 2,500 miles, about the distance from Hampton Roads to San Francisco. The F/A-22's maximum range has not been released.

The most obvious difference is in stealth. The F-15C was designed purely for aerodynamics, while the Raptor's design includes features that make it difficult to see on radar.

The Air Force has not determined how many Raptors it will assign to each squadron. Langley's three F-15C squadrons range in size from 18 to 24 aircraft, with 24 being optimal, Gorenc said.

Pilots will train on the F/A-22 at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

Langley is undergoing $100 million in renovations to prepare for the Raptors. The money, spread over fiscal years 2002 to 2004, will pay for new hangars and other flight-line upgrades.

The base is still recovering from Hurricane Isabel, which wrought $200 million in damage at Langley. The storm's effects are still popping up, Gorenc said. Stadium lights illuminating the flight line recently went dark when corrosion from saltwater flooding ate through the wiring.

Reach Dennis O'Brien at dennis.obrien@pilotonline.com or 446-2355.

Then it showups to Hill....

LOL that would piss some folks off <img src=icon_smile_evil.gif border=0 align=middle>

Earlier related article:

Officials say F/A-22s could arrive in 2005
By DALE EISMAN, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 24, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Computer software and cost-control problems that have bedeviled development of the F/A-22 Raptor are all but solved and a squadron of 24 of the radar-dodging warplanes could be operating from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton by the end of 2005, senior Air Force leaders said Wednesday.

A top civilian official and three generals took turns extolling the virtues of the Raptor, telling reporters that test pilots are tossing around terms like ``mouthwatering,'' to describe the F/A-22's supersonic performance.

``The F/A-22 is absolutely the most awesome killing machine I have ever, ever flown. And that's today. It will get better,'' said Maj. Gen. Wilbert D. Pearson Jr., a veteran fighter jockey who estimated he's piloted 60 different types of aircraft throughout his 32-year career.

The Air Force expects to make Langley a key East Coast base for the Raptor, which is to replace the F-15 Eagle as the service's premier dogfighter. Long-range plans call for the assignment of three squadrons -- 72 planes -- to Langley by 2007; 66 Eagles currently are stationed there.

Because the Raptors are to be easier to maintain than F-15s, the shift will produce a small cut in the number of personnel at Langley, the Air Force said in a report released last fall.

Even so, the decision last year to place the Raptors at Langley has been widely seen as a declaration that service leaders intend to maintain the base as a major center of operations. The Navy gave a similar vote of confidence last week to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, as a top admiral recommended it as the home for eight squadrons -- 120 aircraft -- of the service's new F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Defense appropriations bills working their way through Congress would provide more than $3.5 billion to purchase 22 Raptors next year. But there is continuing uncertainty in Congress about the planes' cost and performance, and the Bush administration's support for the program.

Congressional analysts reported in April that the program is seven years behind its original schedule and cost increases have helped force a series of cuts, from 648 to 276, in the total number of Raptors the Air Force will purchase.

According to Air Force figures, each of the planes will end up costing $256 million, including funds spent for research and development and the construction of new facilities at Langley and other bases. Even at $127 million, which the Air Force says is the real ``flyaway'' cost of each plane, the Raptor is about twice as expensive as the Navy's Super Hornet.

Air Force officials insist the funds will produce an airplane able to guarantee American ``air dominance'' indefinitely. The Raptor's design and special coatings are to make it virtually invisible to radar and its engines will permit supersonic flight without the use of fuel-gulping afterburners.

Pearson and other officials said Wednesday that since February, the Air Force and contractor Lockheed Martin have dramatically reduced the failure rate of software that controls the Raptor's flight controls, sensors, weapons and communications systems.

The most recent revision of that software, with about 2 million lines of code, has run for more than 66 hours in three test planes with just one major failure. There have been more ``anomalies'' with some subsystems, officials said, but the software is running for an average of 5.29 hours between those difficulties.

As recently as February, the Raptors were flying less than two hours between major software anomalies and less than 90 minutes between failures in their subsystems. None of the software problems involve flight-safety issues, Air Force officials stressed.

The Raptor's software is the most complicated ever installed in a fighter aircraft. The relative handful of still-not-completely solved problems with the code involve ``let's go kill people software . . . the stuff that's going to allow you to be successful in combat,'' said Brig. Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, a senior program official. Still, Pearson said he would take still-in-development Raptors into combat ``over anything else that sits on anybody's ramp, anywhere.'' The plane's radars and other sensors provide such a comprehensive picture of other aircraft and targets on the ground that Raptor pilots ``know more about the threat than the threat aircraft probably know,'' he asserted.

Reach Dale Eisman at icemandc@msn.com or (703) 913-9872.

first time I recall seeing 1800 as the max speed for F-15, I think that works out to M 2.7

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

It depends on the altitude boomer.

I've always seen Mach 2.5+ listed, and at some altitudes, that is about 1800mph isn't it?

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger."

What are the odds of some raptor being made operational sooner than 2005 if korea and Iran heat up.

I've always used 660 as a rule of thumb for mach at altitude.
my generator says
1800mph=2640fps=M2.7 @ 60,000ft
at 140,000ft you get M2.49 for 1800mph

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.