Anon

12/15/2005

Dear Raptor Team,

We did it! Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of the F-22A Raptor was declared this afternoon by General Ronald E. Keys, Air Combat Commander at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.
In doing so, the General said the Raptor is now available for use in combat around the globe and for use in homeland defense missions. The current 27th Fighter Squadron combat deployment capability with the F-22A is a 12-ship deployable package designed to execute air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.
In the words of General Keys, “The F-22A fulfills a long quest to bring fifth generation capabilities of stealth, supercruise and precision to the warfighter today and 30 years from today. If we go to war tomorrow, the Raptor will go with us. The Raptor’s cutting edge technology brings us continued joint air dominance despite advancing enemy threats.”
While declaring IOC, General Keys also publicly announced that the name of the Raptor has been changed from F/A-22 to F-22A, as indicated earlier this week when Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Michael Moseley, said the Air Force decided to remove the letter "A" from the first part of the fighter's designation to better align the Raptor with previous Air Force fighters. The “A” in the back of F-22 is also in line with the way the Air Force denotes updated or spiral versions that are produced after the initial baseline model weapons system.
From our perspective, we’ll keep on making the best fighter ever designed, tested, manufactured and delivered to a grateful nation.
Congratulations again and well done on making history!

Larry Lawson,
Executive Vice President & F-22 General Manager

JG73

Wow... that was fast. In another thread a few days ago I speculated it would take at least a year till being operational. Wasn't the first serial F-22 just delivered 2 or 3 month ago???

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highsea

Good grief, no! The first "serial production" Raptor was #4001. Delivered in 1997. The first 40 AC were designated test and eval platforms, these are split between Tyndall and Nellis. Don't think that these are not operational AC, they are. They just won't enter combat service. 4001 is already retired! These are the planes that are used to develop the tactics and train the maintainers.

From 4041 on, the AC will go to operational squadrons. There are some 70 total F-22's built, and ALL of them can go to war if necessary. 4041 was the first one that will go into combat service, and it rolled out in Oct. 2004.

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TopHatter

What does "retirement" mean, specifically? Particularly for this aircraft.

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dabrownguy

God bless the Raptor. That is if the Raptor doesn't frag God first.

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Horrido

Retired, as in flown to Wright-Pat and shot full of holes...


http://www.codeonemagazine.com/event...1_events1.html


Raptor 4001 Makes Final Flight


Raptor 4001, the first F-22 aircraft to fly, retired last November from flight tests at Edwards AFB, California, and headed to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, where it will be used for DoD-mandated live-fire testing. Raptor 01 will be mounted on a stand and shot with exploding shells and missile fragments to determine how well it withstands antiaircraft fire. Hydraulic jacks will subject Raptor’s wings to flight-like loads, and a battery of jet engines blowing across the wings will simulate flight speeds in excess of 600 mph. With fuel tanks filled with jet fuel, Raptor’s wings will be shot with munitions a potential enemy might use.

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TopHatter

Ok, I'll bite....what in the world does that mean?


Cool...and it makes good sense as well.

Dreadnought

Excellent news.

Anon

IOW, may god bless the raptor if the raptor doesn't shoot god down first.

LOL.

The guy

I think the raptor is a great jet but the shear cost means its not going to be very popular. There already a cheape jet that was designed like the raptor but, more cost effective. An even better part is a lot of other countries put money into its research so the JSF-35 will most likely become more popular and just as good comprimising one ability supercruise. So the JSF-35 is a cheaper version with out supercruise.

canoe

Possibly but history has shown some countries are willing to pay for quality over numbers. The F-35 is a great multirole/defensive fighter but its much smaller and has far more limited air dominance capabilities. It has less range and significantly less stealth capability over the Raptor. I think the one selling point for the Raptor if its even given a chance to prove its abilities in actual combat will be how capable it is at intercepting long range missiles and cruise missiles.

As to who might need or want these capabilties. There seems to significant build up of military capabilies of certain states which are expressing a fairly serious level of willingness to use them.

For those who haven't been watching the news lately you might want to keep your eyes on Iran. I think the only thing that has prevented Iran from already going after Isreal and some of its middle eastern neighbours is the fact it would result in an immediate American intervention. Iran has recently purchased very modern Russian air defence systems and is attempting to secure other foreign weapon orders.

With Iranian oil reserves basiclly their countries economic lifeline not expected to last anymore then 15-20 years and degraded relations with the U.S and Europe their government is making there military build up a high priority. I think until Iran produces a functional proven nuclear weapon the threat of U.S intervention will keep them in check, however after they have produced a reliable nuclear weapon I think they'll attempt to keep the U.S in check with the threat of a nuclear war and use their conventional military forces against pro-western middle eastern countries and likely Isreal. Their current leader has made it abundantly clear he has no problem with war or genoicide.

For the recent weapon purchased (these were not so well publicized).
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/16/euprotest.shtml
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/...aircraft.shtml

BenRoethig

Who said we have an intention of exporting the raptor?

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canoe

No one I was suggesting that if it was up for export there would be a decent reason to buy it for some countries. And I think theres a pretty good chance that if the Aussies or the Brits were interested you might even be willing to sell and export version.

This might occur if a major air war become a real possibility for them.