F-22

Happy Friday, FighterSweep Fans! We all know what this means: another opportunity to admire the brilliant luster of Mach diamonds, have our senses delightfully singed, and go into the weekend with Eau de JP8 wafting through our memories. It is once again Burner Friday! This week we’ve chosen to tantalize your eyeballs with a glorious […]

One of the longest-standing questions I’ve been asked about the F-22A Raptor is this: “why is there no helmet-mounted display for the pilot? All the other jets have them, so why not the F-22?” I have heard a few reasons, and most have to do with the period of time when the Raptor was designed. […]

The 95th’s homecoming also marks the completion of the first official combat deployment for the Raptor. The world’s first fifth-generation fighter, the F-22 reached its initial operational capability (IOC) on 15 December 2005, so after nearly ten years of service, the Raptor fired its first shots in anger on the ensuing night of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Despite Sentry Savannah being a fighter-centric exercise, air mobility personnel were already hard at work even before it had officially begun. A dozen C-130 Hercules and 5 C-17 Globemaster IIIs transports brought in personnel and cargo in preparation for the exercise, and they hit the ground running. “The deployment process is very similar to that of going […]

Our idea of air superiority is not that we win the fight like the RAF won the Battle of Britain, but that we win the fight in the other guy’s airspace…

After a somewhat tedious look at the scientific background to high gravitational (G) forces and how they affect the human body in flight, we need to understand how military aviators flying high-performance aircraft maintain consciousness and continue to press their attack in such a physically demanding and stressful environment. The G-LOC Before we get into that, I need to address the dreaded G-induced Loss Of Consciousness. […]

I met Steve Rainey at Elmendorf Air Force Base in August of 2007. He was there as part of a contingent celebrating the arrival of the first six F-22A Raptors to the installation, signifying the transition of the 90th Fighter Squadron “Dicemen” from the venerable Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle to the U.S. Air Force’s newest fifth-generation […]

In a lame attempt at geopolitical intimidation, Russia again flies its Bear bombers very, very close to the sovereign airspace of other countries. The real symbolism here, however, comes from the fact these propeller-driven planes—yes, the very same aircraft we used to intercept with F-4s—are getting escorted out of the club by a couple Lockheed-Martin F-22A […]