Test pilots prepare to finish the manual on new Raptors

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005 | 9:56 a.m.

Over the next six months pilots with nicknames like Bluto, Fangs and Junior will be testing the military's newest stealth fighter at Nellis Air Force Base and putting the finishing touches on a tactics manual that will tell others how to fly the FA-22 Raptor.

"Those pilots are going to be able to look in that playbook, and find their mission and say, 'Here's what Bluto and Fangs said to do,' " said Lt Col. Art "Junior" McGettrick, commander of Nellis' 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron.

On Friday the 422nd flew the first of about 175 test sorties in the Raptor as part of the final testing phase for the fighter before the first operational Raptor squadron is assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Va., in December.

Maj. Craig "Bluto" Baker and Maj. Mike "Fangs" Kensick are part of the team that will be conducting the Force Development Evaluation and preparing the approximately 1,000-page tactics tome on the Raptor.

President Bush's proposed budget, released Monday, calls for only 179 Raptors to be built by 2008, short of the 381 planes that Air Force leaders have asked for, but that doesn't affect the 422nd's mission.

Each Raptor costs about $133 million each, or $258 million each when research and development costs are factored in, officials say.

Critics of the expensive plane say that a replacement for the nearly 30-year-old F-15 Eagle is not needed as demonstrated by the lack of combat aircraft the U.S. faced in the invasion of Iraq.

But McGettrick said fourth generation fighters such as the Russian-made SU-27 and MiG-29 Fulcrum are a match for the 1978-1985 era F-15s that the Air Force is currently flying.

India, Russia and China are among the countries flying SU-27s and Iran flys Fulcrums, McGettrick said.

"These planes are manufactured in Russia and France and are on sale to anyone with a checkbook," McGettrick said.

The emergence of new surface to air missile systems that can lock down thousands of miles of airspace are also a threat that the Raptor, with its ability to fly higher and faster than an F-15, has a better chance to destroy, Kinsick said.

The tests that the 422nd will conduct on the Raptor over the next six to nine months at Nellis Test and Training Range include missions with live ammunition, including 1,000-pound bombs, as well as challenges from simulated air-to-ground attacks and performance in connection with night vision goggles.

The FA-22 will also be flown with the Air Force's other stealth aircraft, the F-117A Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit, and could provide protection for those planes, allowing for them to fly daytime missions instead of being restricted to night flights, Air Force officials said.