Screamin' Demons over New Mexico

The 49th Fighter Wing and 7th Fighter Squadron flagships arrive at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. (U.S. Air Force Photo/ Senior Airman Russell Scalf) 

Flying out of a remote corner of the New Mexico desert are the F-22 Raptors of the 7th Fighter Squadron (FS), the “Screamin’ Demons”. Until recently, Holloman Air Force Base (AFB) and the 49th Fighter Wing (FW) were home to the United States Air Force’s (USAF) first stealth aircraft, the Lockheed Martin F-117A Nighthawk. With the retirement of the F-117, the 49th Fighter Wing and its constituent fighter squadrons are in the process of transitioning to their new mount, the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor.

The 7th Fighter Squadron, which was reactivated last year after a dormant period, is the first of two F-22 squadrons to be activated at the remote New Mexico base. The unit, which only began receiving its new aircraft late last year, currently only has nine jets and around a dozen pilots, said Captain Brandon “Buz” Zuercher, an instructor pilot with the squadron. The entire 49th FW, meanwhile, currently has a total of only 30 pilots, many of whom are senior leaders, he said. Eventually, the 7th FS will comprise a total of 70 pilots flying 18 primary authorized aircraft and two attrition reserve F-22s. ‘New’ aircraft arrive from Alaska at a rate of two per month, with the last Raptor to be assigned to 7th FS scheduled to arrive in late 2009.

This Raptor, recently transferred to the 7th Fighter Squadron from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, still wears the markings of its previous unit. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Senior Airman Anthony Nelson Jr)

The Raptor represents a huge leap in capability of the over the F-117 and other legacy airplanes, Zuercher said. The new aircraft combines stealth with sustained supersonic speed and incredible agility while incorporating a dizzying array of sensors providing unprecedented situational awareness. Unlike the Nighthawk, which was primarily a strike aircraft, the Raptor is primarily an air superiority machine. “The F-22 is an air superiority fighter. Our job is to make sure we own the airspace”, Zuercher said.

Zuercher, who flew the F-15C Eagle air superiority fighter prior to transitioning to the Raptor, explains that while the F-22 “can do all the traditional fighter roles” such as offensive counter-air, defensive counter-air, and escorting strike aircraft, the jet also has a secondary strike role. Raptor pilots’ focus 75 per cent of their training on the air-to-air mission with the remaining 25 per cent dedicated to the air-to-ground strike role. The Raptor, additionally, performs two specific missions no other fighter can undertake, Zuercher said.

The first, Zuercher states, is that “we get to escort the Global Strike Taskforce, the B-2s, and we also do the self-escorted strike mission” deep inside even the most heavily defended airspace. The Raptor is one of the few aircraft designed to be capable of evading the even the latest generation of enemy surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. Zuercher explains that the F-22’s stealthy airframe and persistent supersonic cruise capability enables him to go into “high SAM saturated areas” where other aircraft can’t go. “I’m going to use supercruise to defend myself or just to get in and out fast,” Zuercher said.

The Raptor’s persistent supersonic cruise capability, known to F-22 pilots as supercruise, is enabled by the aircraft’s massive Pratt and Whitney F-119 afterburning turbofans which deliver over 35 thousand pounds of thrust per engine. Unlike typical legacy “4th generation” fighters such as the F-15 Eagle or F-16, which require afterburners to maintain supersonic flight, the Raptor can easily exceed the speed of sound without the use of its afterburners.

A 7th Fighter Squadron F-22 takes off from Holloman AFB, New Mexico. (U.S. Air Force Photo/ Senior Airman Russell Scalf)

In stark contrast to the pilots of 4th generation machines, Raptor pilots exceed the sound barrier “multiple times on a daily basis”, Zuercher said. As such, the supersonic overland ranges around Holloman are an especially valuable training resource for the 49th FW aviators. Typically, depending upon the type of mission, a Raptor pilot will see speeds as fast as Mach 1.5 or Mach 1.6 “a few times a week”. More importantly, Zuercher emphasizes, is that “we can stay in those regimes for a very long time”. Zuercher added that he has flown the Raptor out to the aircraft’s maximum allowable speed under current regulations of Mach 2. Asked if he had ever come close to such speeds in the F-15, Zuercher answered, “The fastest I’ve ever flown the F-15 was around Mach 1.3, and in the F-15 you got to really be trying to go that fast”.

As a vivid illustration of what supercruise capability can afford, Zuercher shared an anecdote about a mission conducted by the 49th FW in October 2008. A flight of Raptors launched from Holloman to perform a strike mission inside the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). The aircraft cruised to their targets at over Mach 1.5 the entire way, dropped their bombs, before recovering at the nearby Hill AFB in Utah. After recovering at Hill, the aircraft immediately turned around and flew back to Holloman. Zuercher said the point of the exercise was simply “to see we could do it”.

Another advantage afforded by the Raptor, Zuercher explains, is that the avionics suite is designed to correlate all the disparate information gathered by the aircraft’s powerful sensors and present it on easy to read displays. These sensors include the superb APG-77 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, which is composed of thousands of individual transmitter/receiver modules, and the ALR-94 passive electronic sensor system, which is embedded in the fuselage and wings. There are a host of other sensors including the AAR-56 Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) that round out the Raptor’s avionics suite. The data from these myriad systems is integrated by the Raptor’s central computer, which “reduces the pilot’s workload significantly”, Zuercher said, allowing him to concentrate on dealing with the threat at hand.

A 7th Fighter Squadron Raptor prepares for a night sortie at Holloman.(USAF Photo)

While the Raptor is a technological marvel, it is the pilots who fly the jet who will make the F-22 a dominant machine in combat. For a new pilot arriving at the squadron after graduating from either the transition course or the B-course at the 43rd Fighter Squadron Formal Training Unit (FTU) at Tyndall AFB, Florida, the first order of business is to complete Mission Qualification Training (MQT). Transition course pilots are “previously qualified fighter pilots. We just need show them how things are done differently in the Raptor”, Zuercher explained.

“All the guys we have here are transition course guys. We might be getting some of the new B-course guys in the fall”, Zuercher said. Unlike the veteran transition course pilots, the B-course graduates have no previous experience flying a fighter. “The focus is slightly different with the B-course guys”, Zuercher said, adding, “We’re teaching them this is how the fighter mission works”.

While the B-course pilots might lack the seasoning of their transition course brethren, they are also free from “bad habits” learnt from previous fighter experience. Zuercher recalls, “At Langley [AFB, Virginia], I had the privilege of flying with one the first B-course guys, Austin Skelly. Not only was he really smart, but also he was asking some very interesting questions. Exploring those kinds of questions makes us better”. Zuercher said he expects a “plus up of B-course students over the next few years” with eventually half of all new Raptor pilots coming in to the program directly out of the B-course.

F-22 Raptors over the New Mexico desert near their home base, Holloman AFB. (U.S. Air Force Photo/ Senior Airman Russell Scalf)

Regardless of a new Raptor pilot’s background, the MQT consists of seven rides, Zuercher explained. The course starts off with the basics of one versus one combat, building up to two versus two or three, and eventually culminating with advanced sorties with four Raptors versus “whatever we can get. Usually our own T-38 aggressors”, Zuercher said.

Zuercher explains that the 49th Fighter Wing is unique amongst USAF units in that it incorporates its own informal aggressor unit composed of T-38 Talon trainers left over from the F-117 era. These training aircraft were originally used to maintain the proficiency of Nighthawk pilots at the base. Under a unique initiative by the senior Wing leadership of the 49th FW, these elderly trainers are now flown as dissimilar adversaries by highly experienced “dual qualified” pilots.

The T-38s are used to train for both close in within visual range (WVR) fights and for long range beyond visual range (BVR) combat training. Often, the T-38 pilots are senior Wing leaders, including the Wing Commander, Col. Jeffery “Cobra” Harrigian, and the 49th Operations Group Commander, Col. Michael “Bam Bam” Stapleton. Zuercher notes that the T-38 makes an outstanding training aid for the Raptors due to its low-cost per flight hour and because it is easy to fly and maintain proficiency in. The Talon is also easy to maintain. The only drawback, Zuercher admits, is that the aircraft lacks a radar system. Other T-38 pilots include well-seasoned Air Force Reserve crews waiting to undergo the F-22 transition course.

Under the USAF’s Total Force initiative, Air Force Reserve pilots are integrated into the structure of the active duty 49th FW. While they are administratively part of the Air Force Reserve Command’s (AFRC) 44th Fighter Group, commanded by Col. Donald Lindberg, functionally the Reserves operate as a component of the 49th FW. “If you sat at the ops desk, and we didn’t have our unit patches, you wouldn’t know who is who. They’re fully integrated into the Wing”, Zuercher said, emphasizing that the Total Force system works seamlessly. Zuercher explains that the veteran pilots of the Air Force Reserve bring with them wealth of experience. He added that one of his Reserve component students has an astonishing 3200 hours of F-16 flight time in addition to his 50 hours in the Raptor.

The 49th Fighter Wing flagship arrives at Holloman AFB.  (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Rachel A. Kocin)

With the 7th Fighter Squadron scheduled to receive its full complement of Raptors by 2010, the next squadron to be activated at Holloman will be the 8th Fighter Squadron, the “Black Sheep”. Like the 7th FS before it, which received older F-22s transferred in from the 90th FS in Alaska, this storied unit will receive older aircraft handed down from Langley AFB, Virginia. Ultimately, Zuercher said, “the planes are essentially the same”. It’s the pilots that make the difference.