The air-superiority fighter is alive and well - but needs to engage ground targets
The relative ease with which allied air forces secured and retained air supremacy during the recent Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns has prompted a fierce debate among air-power exponents over the need to field a new generation of air-superiority fighters. Noting that hostile powers are unable or unwilling to put their own combat aircraft in harm's way, opponents to high-profile fighter projects on both sides of the Atlantic have warned that the new breed of designs must evolve, or die.
The Farnborough show was again a focus for market leaders in the fighter business to promote their wares and talk up their prospects within the future network-enabled battlespace.
US contractors came to the show in upbeat mood, with developmental testing of the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F/A-22 Raptor drawing rave reviews from the US Air Force. Boeing's F/A-18F Super Hornet arrived in the UK as a combat veteran and shone during the daily flying display, and Lockheed Martin said it was close to resolving weight issues threatening the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project (Flight International, 27 July-2 August).
Europe's Eurofighter programme also grabbed the headlines ahead of a 31 July industry deadline to reach agreement on the terms for a Tranche 2 production contract. Failure to successfully resolve this issue could lead to a one-year break in production and extra costs for partner nations Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, says Eurofighter chief executive Aloysius Rauen.
Speaking about the F/A-22 at Farnborough via a satellite television link with the USAF's Nellis AFB in Nevada on 20 July, pilots assigned to the service's 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron gave a detailed overview of their experience in operating the transformational fighter.
Current training activities are focused on developing tactics and training for the air-superiority role, using the full benefits of the aircraft's stealthy design and supercruise performance, says operations officer Maj Alex Grynkewich.
These design traits will also prove to be key attributes during future ground-attack operations by providing protection against "double-digit" surface-to-air missile systems, he says.
Ruling the skies
An ongoing series of evaluations pit a pair of F/A-22s against a mixed aggressor force of eight Boeing F-15 Eagles and Lockheed Martin F-16s over the Nellis range. "We come in at Mach 1.5 and 50,000ft [15,250m] and the adversaries are dead within 5min," says Grynkewich.
In addition to the success of such beyond visual-range engagements, Grynkewich notes: "In the little bit of visual manoeuvring we've done, the Raptor rules the skies. In the 30s it takes an F-15 or an F-16 to get into a kill position, the F/A-22 is already getting ordnance away".
The F/A-22's software configuration continues to evolve, with Lockheed Martin now introducing a Block 3.12 training capability and on track to deliver the 3.13 iteration within the next three months. The latter will, for the first time, introduce an air-to-surface strike capability, enabling the Raptor to deploy Boeing's GPS guided Joint Direct Attack Munition.
The future integration of Boeing's Small Diameter Bomb is also eagerly awaited, as this will increase the Raptor's stand-off lethality, says Col Ken Murphy, commander of the USAF's 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group. "We look forward to that, as our main concern is how we support the war-fighters on the ground," he says.
The Nellis-based unit has now accepted eight Raptors, including two on loan to support initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) activities now more than halfway completed at Edwards AFB, California. "The aircraft is clearly exceeding its performance and maintainability goals, and we expect it to pass IOT&E," says Lockheed Martin Aeronautics executive vice-president Dain Hancock.
The US Army's cancellation of its budget-sapping Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche reconnaissance and attack helicopter project this year prompted widespread speculation that the F/A-22 would also fall foul of the spending axe. But Lockheed Martin president and chief operating officer Robert Stevens says the company was never worried that the Raptor would follow suit.
"The F/A-22 is the air force's number one priority, and it has been for years," he says. "It was never axiomatic when Comanche was cancelled that the F/A-22 would be next."
The air force has so far ordered 83 production F/A-22s and taken delivery of 33. Development testing will conclude late this year, with the service's first 12 Raptor pilots to complete training on the type in early 2005, along with a full complement of maintenance personnel.
The Eurofighter Typhoon won a new plaudit last month, when USAF chief of staff Gen John Jumper flew in one of the German air force's two-seat trainers from the service's Laage airbase. "I have been flying in all air force jets and none was as good as Eurofighter," he said on 20 July, praising the type's "agility, manoeuvrability, acceleration and precise navigation".
Now working up with the four partner nations in the air-superiority role, the Eurofighter is also facing a troubled transformation towards conducting multirole duties. The UK is pushing to introduce an accelerated air-to-surface strike capability with its last Tranche 1 production aircraft, but must either convince its project partners to back the move, or bear the costs of integrating ground-attack weapons on its own.
Singapore's Defence Science and Technology Agency has meanwhile completed an evaluation of two UK Royal Air Force Typhoon trainers as part of the country's ongoing future fighter competition. The aircraft were scheduled to return to BAE Systems' Warton site in the UK late last month, after a round trip of more than 26,000km (14,000nm).
The Typhoon has been in RAF use since last December under BAE's Case White entry into service project (Flight International, 1-7 June).
CRAIG HOYLE
Source: Flight International
