Flying

'The Green Bats': Flying on the Cutting Edge

By Dave Majumdar, Special to Aviation.com

posted: 27 August 2008 04:24 pm ET

: The U.S. Air Force's 422nd Test & Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nev. has the important task of testing new technology for use on the Air Force's combat aircraft. Current testing is focusing on increasing the capabilities of the Air Force's new F-22A Raptor fighter. Here, one of the 422nd TES Raptors trails condensed moisture it has squeezed out of the air in its rapid passage through the sky. Credit: Randy Rothhaar
: As part of its operational testing of new technology for in-service U.S. Air Force combat aircraft, the 422nd Test & Evaluation Squadron flies every combat type in the Air Force arsenal. These include F-15C Eagles and F-15E Strike Eagles. One of the 422nd's F-15Cs is seen here taking off from the squadron's base at Nellis AFB, Nev. Credit: Jim Mumaw
: The F-16 is another type flown by the 422nd TES at Nellis AFB, Nev. on a continuing basis, for evaluation of new combat technologies and as mock adversaries for new fighter types under evaluation. In this photograph, one of the 422nd's F-16 'Vipers' takes off from Nellis AFB. Credit: Jim Mumaw
: As soon as the F-22A Raptor entered operational service, follow-on operational testing of new combat technologies for the aircraft by the 422nd TES began at Nellis AFB, Nev. This Aug. 13, 2008 photograph shows a new F-22A arriving at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, on Aug. 13, 2008, to enter service with the 525th Fighter Squadron, which is part of the Elmendorf AFB-based 3rd Fighter Wing. The aircraft, the flagship for the 525th FS, was flown in by Lt. Charles 'Corky' Corcoran, who had been one of the first group of seven pilots selected to fly the Raptor for operational test and evaluation. Another new F-22 arrived on Aug. 14 for the 525th FS. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Jonathan Steffen

The elite pilots and maintainers of the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron — “The Green Bats” — at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. perform one of the most challenging and responsible jobs in the U.S. Air Force. Their exacting and vital role is to vet the latest technological advances for the service's combat forces. As a result, the pilots and maintainers picked for the squadron are the Air Force's very best.

To fulfill its mission, the squadron flies the entire gamut of tactical aircraft in the Air Force arsenal. They include the A-10 Thunderbolt, F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The latest aircraft flown by the 422nd TES is the Air Force's newest and most technologically advanced warplane, the F-22A Raptor , said Maj. Chadd Dalbec, the squadron's assistant director of operations.

The evaluation of the F-22 Raptor for the Air Force illustrates perfectly the mission of the 422nd TES.

From the very beginning, the Raptor program was special, said Lt. Col. Orlando Sanchez, director of operations for the brand-new 525th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, and one of the first Raptor pilots in the U.S. Air Force.

The Raptor is a revolution in fighter design, fundamentally “changing the playing field,” said Sanchez. It is so capable, that unlike previous generations of fighters, the Raptor “is less about the man and more about the machine.”

Even young pilots who have very few hours experience in flying the Raptor routinely defeat superior numbers of veteran pilots flying current-generation planes such as the F-15 and F-16, said Sanchez.

The F-22 is now operational with two squadrons at Langley AFB, Va. and two at Elmendorf AFB , and an additional base in Florida is dedicated to training. Follow-on operational testing continues at Nellis AFB with the 422nd TES, which is testing new technologies and tactics to maintain and expand upon the jet’s lethal edge, said Dalbec.

Follow-on operational testing

Follow-on testing is now evaluating new technologies to link the Raptor to other platforms and share the vast intake of the jet’s immensely powerful sensor suite as a component of a battlefield information network.

In the near future, flight testing also will evaluate new software that is designed to improve the Raptor's electronic attack capability and “exponentially increase the Raptor's air to ground capabilities,” said Dalbec.

Operational testing for the Raptor began with seven pilots handpicked from thousands of applicants, said Sanchez. The men were all highly experienced graduates of the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School, and several of them were Weapons School instructors.

Pilots for F-22 operational testing were selected in three batches: the initial cadre of seven, a follow-on group of 10 for the second phase of testing, and a third group of seven chosen to set up the training pipeline for the Raptor, said Sanchez.

Weapons School Instructor Sanchez was in the second group of men, each of whom had flown more than 2,000 hours in the F-15C Eagle . These men were the cream of the crop among USAF fighter pilots.

F-22 put through its air-to-air paces

Sanchez said the seven initial pilots put the Raptor through a series of brutal air-to-air scenarios in order to prove the effectiveness of the new warplane. During these tests, one Raptor could face as many eight F-15C Eagles or F-16s playing the role of the enemy.

The F-22 performed brilliantly, the mock enemy jets being “hit before they even knew the Raptors were there,” said Sanchez.

He experienced the Raptor for the first time in Follow-on Operational Test I, the next phase of testing carried out by the 422nd TES. This phase not only introduced new software to improve the Raptor's air-to-air capabilities, but also added the air-to-ground mission to the new jet's bag of tricks, said Sanchez.

The Raptor now had the ability to drop the 1,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) satellite-guided bomb. This was crucial to the F-22's mission of destroying enemy surface-to-air missile sites — a task Sanchez describes as “knocking down the door” as part of the U.S. Air Force's global strike task force.

Integration with other weapons platforms

Next for the Raptor was Follow-on Operational Test II, which focused on integrating the F-22 into operations with other U.S. Air Force weapons platforms. These tests involved the 422nd's entire arsenal of F-15Cs, F-15Es and also the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet versions and contributed directly to the Air Force's operational mission, said Sanchez.

On the day Aviation.com interviewed Sanchez, the 525th Fighter Squadron participated in air-to-air combat exercises with the F-15C Eagles of the 19th Fighter Squadron and was preparing to leave for the Combat Archer exercises in Florida. In these air-to-air live-fire exercises, the 525th FS would use many of the same tactics and procedures developed by the 422nd TES.

The F-22s act as airborne mission commanders for the battle, using their sensors and stealth to act as airborne controllers in addition to using their own missiles, said Sanchez.

As yet the Raptor is limited in the amount of information it can share with other aircraft that aren’t also F-22s. While the Raptor has a data-link that can talk to other F-22s, it does not use the Link-16 system that older aircraft use to communicate with each other, Sanchez explained.

New data-link system

However, this limitation is temporary, as the 422nd TES is already testing a new data-link system called TTNT (Tactical Targeting Network Technologies) that will eventually be integrated into the operational fleet of Raptors. TTNT will provide “options for securely transmitting F-22A data off-board so that other platforms and command and control assets can leverage off our 5th-generation sensor capabilities,” said Dalbec.

The Raptor already has achieved a remarkable degree of maturity, said Sanchez. It is now fully operational with the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., and the 3rd Wing — of which the 525th FS is part — will be fully operational by the middle of next year.

Already, four brand new pilots who have never flown a fighter before are breezing through the initial training course for the F-22 with the 43rd Fighter Squadron at Tyndall AFB, Fla., a testament to the ease of flying and fighting in the Raptor, said Sanchez.

Thanks to the efforts of the operational testers at the 422nd TES, the U.S. Air Force today believes the Raptor is the most lethal warplane ever to fly.