F-22 fighter jet scrapes tail on runway during Pearl Harbor anniversary causing $1.8million damage

An F-22 fighter jet used in a flyover during a remembrance ceremony at Pearl Harbor scraped its tail on a runway as it landed, causing $1.8 million in damage.
A Hawaii National Guard spokesman says nobody was hurt in the incident Friday morning on the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Lt. Col. Charles Anthony says the jet was coming back to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam from a training exercise after taking part in the ceremony. He says the 'mishap' happened roughly 90 minutes after the flyover.

In jet terms, the damage to the F-22's horizontal stabilizers may be little more than a pricey fender-bender.
Anthony says it costs roughly $147 million to make one F-22 fighter.
The nation's F-22 fighter jets were grounded for four months last year after pilots complained of experiencing a lack of oxygen that can cause dizziness and blackouts.

An Air Force advisory panel studied the problem for seven months but couldn't identify the cause. The panel supported a plan to keep the aircraft flying with pilots using special sensors, filters and other safety precautions.
In May, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered that F-22 flights remain 'within proximity of potential landing locations' so that pilots can land quickly in the event they experience an oxygen-deficit problem.

The F-22, made by Lockheed Martin Corp., is the Air Force's most-prized stealth fighter. It was built to evade radar and is capable of flying at faster-than-sound speeds without using afterburners.
Five other bases are home to F-22s: Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.; Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.; and Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

F-22 Raptor crashes at Tyndall AFB

An F-22 Raptor crashed Nov. 15, at 3:30 p.m. on Tyndall Air Force , Fla., one quarter mile east of the drone runway.

Highway 98 has been closed from Dupont Bridge to the "Welcome to Mexico Beach" sign as a safety precaution. The incident is not on Highway 98.

The pilot ejected from the aircraft safely and  is currently under supervision of the 325th Medical Group. First responders are on scene.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation and additional details will be provided as soon as they become available.

U.S. Air Force Seeks F-22 Cooperation with Allies

A senior U.S. Air Force commander has opened the door to joint coalition operations with the stealthy F-22 Raptor fighter. Speaking at the International Fighter Conference organized in London by IQPC, Maj. Gen. Larry Wells, commander of the Ninth Air Force, said “We need our partners to get involved with the F-22 in exercises.”
Until now, the security classification surrounding America’s top-of-the-line interceptor has precluded meaningful cooperation with allied air forces. But Wells noted that the U.S. fleet of stealth airplanes is not large enough to conduct major strike operations alone. “We must integrate with other fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft,” he said. Wells said that exercises with U.S. Air Force F-15s and F-16s have already been stepped up. At present, F-22 pilots can communicate with other aircraft only by voice, but a Link 16 receive capability will be added next year, Wells revealed. He said that F-22s “pass a lot of high-fidelity data [among] themselves” via their unique datalink, but cannot yet communicate even with other U.S. stealth aircraft such as the B-2 or the F-35. Addition of the F-35’s multifunction advanced datalink (MADL) will eventually provide that capability, Wells added.

Wells also revealed that one squadron of F-22s has now been equipped to drop the 250-pound small diameter bomb. This boosts the aircraft’s air-to-ground capability, which already includes the ability to drop 1,000-pound joint direct attack munitions subsonically.
The majority of the operating restrictions imposed after the well publicized pilot oxygen supply problems have now been lifted, Wells reported. “We’ve recently done two major deployments to East Asia and Southwest Asia without incident,” he said. Solutions to the elusive problems include charcoal filters in the oxygen supply; a back-up oxygen supply; and modifications to the pilot’s “Combat Edge” pressure jerkin.

F-22 Raptor's oxygen systems may be altered, Air Force says

The Air Force is considering making changes to the F-22 Raptor's oxygen supply system, including some that were proposed nearly a decade ago, a senior general told a congressional subcommittee Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon said the service decided in 2005 not to make recommended changes that would have better regulated oxygen supplied to pilots. At the time, respiratory problems reported by pilots were not considered serious.
Since then, many more breathing problems have been reported, Lyon said, and the Air Force "has learned a lot" about physiological effects unique to the F-22.
Pilots have reported becoming disoriented while flying the plane.
"We're looking at making broader changes that would incorporate those [2005] suggestions," Lyon said.
He was responding to a question by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who asked specifically about a report in Thursday's Star-Telegram that the Air Force did not make changes that would have helped control the respiratory issues.

For years, pilots have flown the Raptor while breathing high levels of oxygen that collapse lung tissue.
The condition, known as acceleration atelectasis, results in coughing and respiratory difficulty that the Air Force has said was only a minor problem.
The general's comments came at a hearing of the Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee on the Air Force's response to health and safety problems reported by F-22 pilots.
The Air Force is "certain the F-22 cockpit is a safe and effective workplace to operate," Lyon said. But preparations are far along to implement other modifications designed to make flying the F-22 safer and less stressful.
A modified pressure vest to combat the strain of G-forces should be ready by the end of the year. Lyon said that should aid breathing and reduce the chances that pilots will become disoriented.
An automatic backup oxygen-generating system will be installed on the first planes next year.
The F-22, he acknowledged, is the only modern fighter without such a backup system.
In their testimony, Lyon and retired Gen. Gregory Martin, who headed an F-22 study by the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, said more frequent operation of the Raptor since 2008 led to numerous physiological problems for pilots.
A comprehensive investigation was launched in 2011, but only after a fatal 2010 crash and several reports of pilots reporting symptoms like hypoxia, or lack of air, and disorientation.
Part of the problem, Martin said, is the F-22 was developed during the 1990s after the Air Force had lost much of its scientific, medical and engineering expertise to manpower cutbacks.
There is no evidence that F-22 pilots are breathing toxic substances, said Clinton Cragg, a NASA engineer advising the Air Force.
However, Cragg said, the F-22 oxygen system would not filter out many toxic substances that could cause respiratory or other problems.
Committee members mostly commended the Air Force. "On balance, I'm pleased with the level of effort the Air Force has put into this investigation," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso.
But Speier said afterward that the Air Force "needs to recognize that it has a crisis on its hands, that its people can no longer trust that the leadership prioritizes [their] welfare. ... It is deeply troubling that they continue to underestimate the scope and the severity of the problem."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/14/168469/f-22-raptors-oxygen-systems-may.html#storylink=cpy

Romney wants to buy more F-22s

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Saturday he would buy more F-22 Raptors as part of his plan to reverse many of the defense cuts planned by the Obama administration.

Romney told a Virginia Beach, Va., television station he would not include the military in the spending cuts he is proposing to cut down the U.S. deficit.
“Rather than completing nine ships per year, I’d move that up to 15. I’d also add F-22s to our Air Force fleet. And I’d add about 100,000 active duty personnel to our military team,” Romney said in the interview. “I think the idea of shrinking our military to try and get closer to balancing our budget is the wrong place to look.”
He’s repeated his plan to increase ship building from nine to 15 ships per year and add 100,000 active duty troops to the military’s end strength. However, this is the first time he’s mentioned any plans to buy more F-22s.
F-22 production was famously ended by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates after the Air Force had fought for the U.S. to buy more fifth generation fighter jets. Air Force leaders wanted to buy 243 F-22s, Gates halted production at 187. Originally, the Air Force wanted to buy more than 750 Raptors.
The last U.S. F-22 rolled off the production line in 2011. The Raptor program has since come under scrutiny after a string of pilots have suffered hypoxia-like symptoms and struggled to breathe in flight. Air Force officials claim to have found the cause, but it has repeatedly grounded the F-22 fleet the past two years and continue to impose flight restrictions.
Air Force leaders pushed to build more F-22s to add to the fleet because they warned a fleet of 187 would be insufficient to defeat an enemy with a top line air force like China. Former Air Force Chief of Staffs Gen. Norton Schwartz and Gen. Michael “Buzz” Moseley argued the costs of re-opening the production line would be too costly to build up the fleet if Congress changed its mind and wanted more F-22s.
If Romney wins and follows through on his plan to buy more F-22s, it would cost at least $900 million to reopen the F-22 production line, according to Loren Thompson, a consultant for Lockheed Martin and other defense companies.

In 2010, Japan discussed buying 40 F-22s from Lockheed Martin, builder of the F-22. Lockheed officials then told Japanese leaders it would cost $900 million to re-open the production line. Thompson said the cost would surely increase when considering two years have passed and the production line was still “semi-warm.”
The cost to reopen the production line would come in addition to the per aircraft price tag to manufacture each jet. That per aircraft cost is harder to decipher. When factoring in development and manufacturing, the price tag per jet totaled the U.S. more than $370 million. However, the flyaway cost — the cost of manufacturing one jet — equaled $137 million per jet.
Re-opening the production line in Marietta, Ga., would take at least two years, Thompson said. Lockheed would be slowed by re-establishing supplier networks and re-training employees.
“In a rush, you could do it in about two years assuming all the other workers weren’t on other projects like F-35,” Thompson said.
He didn’t expect the problems with the F-22’s oxygen system to hold a Romney administration back from following through on buying more F-22 plans.
“It wouldn’t be a problem, Thompson said. “If there are still issues with the oxgen system they could just switch over to another supplier like Cobham.”
There are also questions about whether further F-22 buys would affect the acquisition schedule for the F-35. The Defense Department plans to buy 2,443 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

U.S. commander: F-22 planes "100 percent" safe

The deployment of a dozen F-22 stealth fighters to Japan has so far gone off without a hitch as the aircraft are being brought back into the skies in their first overseas mission since restrictions were imposed over incidents involving pilots getting dizzy and disoriented, a senior U.S. Air Force commander told the Associated Press on Thursday.
The six-month mission is a key test for the fighters, which have been the focus of intensive investigations over potentially deadly breathing problems in the cockpit.
Following more than a dozen incidents in which pilots said they were having symptoms suggesting they were not getting enough oxygen, and a fatal crash in 2010 that has since been ruled primarily a case of pilot error, the F-22 fleet was grounded for several months last year. It was put under restrictions again in May after two pilots came forward with claims that the aircraft weren't safe to fly.


Major Jeremy Gordon and Captain Josh Wilson with the Virginia Air National Guard, based at Langley Air Force Base near Norfolk, told "60 Minutes" then that they sometimes felt extremely disorientated while in the air, and complained of coughing and feeling dizzy - "vertigo kind of stuff" - after flying.
"The onset of this is insidious," Gordon said. "Some pilots will go the entire mission, land, and not know anything went wrong. There was a publicly announced incident of a jet in Alaska hitting a tree and the pilot was not aware that he ran into a tree."
Brig. Gen. Matthew Molloy, commander of the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa, said there have been no incidents with the F-22s since they arrived in Japan late last month, just days after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced he was easing the restrictions. The planes have been flying almost daily since then, weather permitting.
"We won't ever bury anything if there are issues, but so far, none," Molloy, who is also an F-22 pilot, told The AP in a telephone interview. "It's delivering safely."
In giving the green light to send the stealth fighters to Okinawa, the Air Force said it had identified the main problem as a faulty valve in its "Combat Edge" flight vest and said it was taking a series of measures to ensure pilot safety. The measures should be complete by the end of the year.
In the meantime, the pilots in Japan are operating under altitude ceilings so they do not need to use flight vests. They are also on a "tether," meaning they must remain close to an emergency landing site.
"The Air Force has been aggressively looking at this very complex issue," Molloy said. "I'm glad that we are getting back on the road."
Some critics have questioned the Air Force's decision to deploy the F-22s to Japan before all of the life support fixes have been finished.
The choice of Okinawa is also sensitive because of an uproar over plans by the Marines to deploy their MV-22 Osprey at another base there as early as next month. Despite reassurances from Washington, opposition to the Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane, is strong on Okinawa because of two recent crashes elsewhere.
Molloy said he is "100 percent" confident that the F-22s are safe to fly. He said sending them to Japan was justified because they boost U.S. capabilities in a key region and reassure U.S. allies of Washington's commitment to them.
"I think this is very much appreciated by Japan," Molloy said. "It strengthens our alliance, it shows that we are very committed."
The problems with the F-22 have been particularly troubling for the Air Force because the fighter is in many ways its showcase aircraft — and possibly its most controversial.
The F-22 can evade radar and fly at faster-than-sound speeds without using afterburners, capabilities unmatched by any other nation. But at $190 million apiece, not counting development costs, it was lambasted in Congress as an overpriced luxury item not suited to current conflicts. Its production was halted last spring and the aircraft has never been used in combat.
Nevertheless, Molloy said the Japan deployment shows that the F-22 remains an important part of the U.S. air arsenal because it gives the Air Force the capability to get into contested areas against adversaries that have better air defenses than countries like Iraq or Afghanistan.
"It's a game-changer. It does air superiority on steroids," he said. "It's a strategic gem, a national treasure."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57503413/u.s-commander-f-22-planes-100-percent-safe/

The F22 defeated by German fighter pilots

Invited to an air combat exercise with their Typhoon based on Eielson last June, the Germans had the opportunity to confront, in the skies of Alaska, the best fighter in the world, the F22 Raptor .

The F22 Raptor, whose unit price is around $ 400 million, was recently allowed to resume flights now that the source of problems is identified drivers of hypoxia. That's good news for the USAF. The bad news is that the French Mirage 2000-9 (on loan from the UAE) and the Germans on Typhoon found the weak point of Rraptor: close combat.

While the Raptor is unbeatable in terms of stealth, evolution at high altitude and combat capability beyond the horizon, however it becomes vulnerable dogfight against aircraft Yet despite its less evolved rudders generously sized and its thrust vectoring nozzles.

The Germans have repeatedly taken over the Raptor recognize good players, it is difficult to approach at close range. Military pilots across the Rhine benefit from the experience gained in 90 years, during which Germany fielded the MiG-29 Fulcrum legacy of the GDR. Tests had shown that while the MIG was vulnerable to ranged combat against F-4 Phantom, Mirage 2000, F15 and F16, proved unbeatable in dogfight. The story repeats itself ...

Asian Defence News

What the F-22 vs. the Typhoon tells us

The anti-F-22 crowd over at Wired bring up some great points about the F-22 and Typhoon. Also, they may have overlooked or just didn't get around to mentioning some other things in the big picture of air power emerging threats.

For starters, while the F-22 may face some challenges in air-to-air combat, anything less than that is going to suffer a hard time in coming anti-access threat scenarios.

With the Typhoon, consider that (except for its F-18-class airframe profile), its speed and performance mimic some of the SU-35 capability. The SU-35 is the non-stealth reference threat for the Pacific in coming years. It was designed to exploit the Raptor. However many of the SU-35 are made, expect its technology to bleed elsewhere.

One big difference between the F-22 and the Typhoon is that one of them is going to have more difficulty in a high-end SAM environment.


What Wired, or us, do not know, are the rules of engagement for the exercise. By getting the F-22 into within-visual-range (WVR) practice with the Typhoon, we give the F-22 a look at what it will have to deal with when facing emerging reference threats in the SU-35 class of jet: or worse.

Wired is right to bring up the single point of failure in the U.S. air power roadmap. That is the AIM-120 AMRAAM. While it may have some combat victories, they were against poor opponents and not someone using cross-eyed jamming in a new-gen Flanker. Once the AMRAAM probability of kill is lowered to that of a Vietnam-era AIM-7 Sparrow, we have problems.

According to Janes and others, we have even more of a problem with the AMRAAM. Rocket motor production for the AIM-120D AMRAAM (the new supposedly longer range variant) is in dire straits because of serious production defects. This problem has affected all AMRAAM deliveries within the last two years.

The fix here is that the U.S. needs to get competing sources for beyond-visual-range (BVR) missiles in the AMRAAM class. Sooner rather than later.

That and a dual mode or family of BVR missiles that use not only radar but optical guidance for terminal homing.

Years ago, when the advanced tactical fighter (ATF) project started--which gave us the F-22--red-force evaluators knew that stealth, for stealth's sake, was not good enough against emerging threats. One had to have extreme altitude and super-cruise to lower the effectiveness of enemy firing solutions by degrading missile no escape zones (NEZ).

With its AN/ALR-94, it has an interesting way of detecting targets; passively. Also the F-22 has usable combat range. And, certainly more than the F-35 will ever see, if it ever shows up in combat trim.

The most important thing that the Typhoon vs. F-22 flights show us is that against almost any emerging threat for the foreseeable future, the F-35 is dead meat. It's BVR capability may count for something, but with the AMRAAM PK taken into effect and a serious lack of dancing ability, what will be delivered to the warfighter are tales of the Brewster Buffalo, Vindicator and Helldiver.

The Pacific isn't looking all that great for air power deterrence. In part, we can thank, Gates, Schwartz and Donley: three people that when you combine their total fund of air power knowledge, it could be written inside of a match-book; with a large-sized crayon.

This should also worry the Israelis when looking at all those Typhoons. For them, the F-35 will not provide a credible deterrence. There was a time we supported our allies. President Clinton did promise them the F-22. Too bad for them, the U.S. didn't follow through.

Today? All the U.S. really wants from its allies is to purchase faulty weapons systems. No matter what the consequence. Asian Defence News

Under restrictions, F-22 fighters arrive in Japan

A group of U.S. F-22 stealth fighters arrived in Japan on Saturday in what the Air Force hopes will be a step toward proving that its prized aircraft are safe after a mysterious oxygen problem that was making pilots sick.
The F-22s arrived at Kadena Air Base from the United States and were expected to remain on the base, on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, for several months. Japanese media said eight of the aircraft had arrived by Saturday evening. Another four were expected to arrive later. Base officials were not immediately available for comment.
The F-22, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., is the Air Force's most advanced stealth fighter. It was built to evade radar and is capable of flying at faster-than-sound speeds without using afterburners.

But the fleet has been under tight flight restrictions since mid-May because pilots were reporting dizziness and other symptoms of hypoxia.
The Air Force says the deployment to Japan is a first step toward returning to normal. Before they left, the Air Force said the aircraft would take a special route to ensure they had possible landing sites along the way and would fly at lower altitudes, where the cockpit oxygen issue is less problematic.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta approved a plan to send the fighters to Japan and begin lifting the restrictions because he said the Air Force has identified the cause of the problem and has taken measures to fix it.
The Air Force believes the troubles stemmed from a valve in the pilots' pressure vest that caused it to inflate and remain inflated, triggering breathing problems. The Air Force is replacing the valve and increasing the volume of air flowing to the pilots by removing a filter that was installed to check for contaminants in the system.
The flights to Japan were to be flown at low altitude so that the vests would not have to be used.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/07/28/2963423/under-restrictions-f-22-fighters.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/07/28/2963423/under-restrictions-f-22-fighters.html#storylink=cpy

Asian Defence News

Not aware of any potential sale of F-22 to India: Pentagon

The Pentagon has said that it is not aware of any potential sale of F-22 fighter jets to India.
''I'm not aware of a potential F-22 sale to India,'' the Pentagon Press Secretary, George Little, told reporters at a news conference.

"I'll let you know if I hear differently," Little said when asked about the possibility of sale of F-22 to India.

F-22 Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation super maneuverable fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology.

It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles.

Despite that countries like Japan and Australia have shown interest in it, the export of F-22 is barred by American federal law.

Current customers for US fighters are either acquiring earlier designs such as the F-15, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, or are waiting to acquire the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter), which contains technology from the F-22 but is designed to be cheaper, more flexible, and available for export.Asian Defence News