The Air Force Times blames a combination of coalition politics and a relatively weak air-to-ground capability for keeping USAF’s exceptionally stealthy but exorbitantly expensive F-22 Raptor from yet another bug hunt:
Experts inside and outside the Air Force said international politics, a broadening of the mission based on United Nations Security Council resolution 1973, the Raptor’s limited air-to-ground weapons payload and other technical considerations all played a role in the decision.
When he testified March 17 before Congress, Schwartz was anticipating needing up to a week to prepare to impose the no-fly zone. The Air Force believed it could accomplish the mission with F-22s alone, at least two sources said, using one to two squadrons.
But that would have locked other nations out of the fight — a key political consideration for the Obama administration — and it would have limited the mission to policing the skies and enforcing the no-fly order…
Some Raptor advocates claim that deploying the aircraft from its home bases might have been “overkill,” at least from a mission threat perspective:
But others argue the mission didn’t demand the Raptor’s speed or stealthy to defeat Libya’s relatively pedestrian air defenses, which consisted largely of obsolete aircraft and older Soviet surface-to-air weaponry.
“Frankly, they might not be needed,” said Mark Gunzinger, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis in Washington. “Libya’s defenses were not that robust to begin with and were rolled back quite handily.” Haynes, the Air Force spokesman, agreed.
“Due to the assessed capabilities of the air defenses, Libya and similar areas do not necessitate a requirement for the F-22 to strike ground targets that can be prosecuted by air-to-ground platforms like the F-15E, which is capable of delivering a mixture of weapons,” Haynes said.
The Raptor is the world’s stealthiest operational aircraft and reigns supreme in the air-to-air combat area. But its combat load is roughly equivalent to that of a smaller, older F-16 — but nowhere close to the payload of the F-15 or the British Tornado.
Which cuts no grass for me: When you’re in a fight, overkill is precisely what you need.
Towards the end of the article, clarity emerges:
The F-22 is currently equipped to carry just two 1,000-pound GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions. Upgrades are planned to allow it to carry eight 250-pound Small Diameter Bomb. But for now, the plane can handle just two ground targets per sortie.
The F-22 lacks the infrared and radar mapping capabilities of the F-15E Strike Eagle, which can drop 24,000 pounds of ordnance on up to a dozen targets that can be selected by the weapon systems officer.
“The [Raptor's] air-to-ground capability is lagging, and is probably lagging more than the Air Force has ever wanted to admit because of the computer architecture,” one senior defense official said. As for a mission like Libya, he said, “The F-22 is not ready to do it.” Even Sambur, a Raptor proponent, concedes that may be so.
“The plane is not fully ready,” Sambur said.
This is probably one of those, “you go to war kinetic military action with the Air Force you have” kinds of things.
Still, the bird really looks great at airshows…
More evidence of the “Fighter Mafia” in the acquisition business. Air superiority is the only mission, right?
GOD! Are they going to try to give the 22 an air-to-gnd capability now? Ye Gods, why can’t they just forcefully state that its not SUPPOSED to have an air-to-gnd capability–else it would be lousy at air-to-air. Talk about not having the courage of one’s convictions!
Some folks would like a Swiss Army knife with wings instead of an air superiority fighter.
We could use a Col. John Boyd right now: Fighter Mafia Don.
We need swiss army knives with wings… We also need a good Ka-Bar with wings and the occasional broadswords with wings too.
Actually, giving the F-22 a/g capability has been in the plans since at least the ’01 QDR (back when the AF was calling it the F/A-22 before catching so much grief about it they returned to F-22).
w/r, SJS
Jeez, if they were any good at the PR thing, it would be let out that it had already been duck hunting and returned with one daffy stencil below the rail… just really stealthy like.
Thousand-pounders are kinda blunt instruments, too. Because after all, we’re enforcing a no-fly zone, right? Or is it a no-drive zone?
Next thing to look for–rebels take Sirte, start massacring / raping / looting Daffy’s kinsmen. US-enabled slaughter? A looming possibility.
Remember they weren’t used in Gulf a few years back for fear of looking “too aggressive”. That led to cancelling the program because they “weren’t used/needed enough”. For air-to-ground, the F22 can currently internally carry two 1,000 pound-class Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), two AIM-120C, and two AIM-9 missiles. I don’t really know what that means, but it doesn’t sound like the thing doesn’t have air to ground capability.
Zane/
With his Kenyan connections/family-tree and great historical knowledge of that mau-mau little contretemps one would think Barack would understand all about that tribal thing, right?
Remember the F-15 that went down. What happens if an F-22 has a mechanical failure or suffers a golden BB hit?
Well, the primary mission of the Air Force is to fly at air shows and other PR events, right?
Seriously, while F-22s are qualified to do strike ops – and being an LO platform cruising at M1.5ish makes you a very, very difficult target – there are cheaper options against this threat.
I’m all about bashing the USAF as much as the next guy but be careful what you wish for. USN TACDEMO teams are all but on the chopping block as are the boys and girls in blue jets.
Do tell, I’m a old Blue Angels AK and have heard nothing about this. Not even rumors.
I dunno – a Raptor going 500 feet over a formation at mach 2.5 might have some effect.
Sure like to see it, myself. From a distance, thanks.
…Have also heard that part of the problem is that the -22s can’t secure talk to anybody but AWACS and other Raptors, since our Allies never quite got around to developing the high-tech comm systems needed to talk to us.
Mike
Just who the heck do those Air Farce clowns think they are?
EVERYBODY knows that the Navy has a monopoly on designing and building fancy pieces of gear that are useless in combat.
If the Air Farce is going to compete in the useless gear catagory, then the only thing that will make the Navy unique is the wonderful diversity program.
If the BBs ever start flying with someone like the PRC, I’m going to want the Raptors cutting the way in. It’s what they were designed to do, kill 5th generation fighters.
The air force was left to its own devices when getting this thing built, so needless to say they had it built as a long distance airplane killer. The zoomies regard anything less than that as degrading and beneath them. Which is why they suck at close air support. That this whole mess comes as a surprise to anyone, when there was no adult supervision on the massive waste of funds they got away with, really stymies me.
Please note that the F-22 can carry 4 2000-lb bombs externally without any real problem, in addition to the smaller payload internally. It would just be less stealthy if it did so.
That said, we sure would have been a lot better off if we had developed the Strike Raptor rather than repeat the F-111 mess all over again trying to cram 3 completely different sets of requirements and priorities into a single airframe, in order to “save” money.
Big D…Not to be a picker of nits, but, I believe the F22 is able to only carry two 1000 lb JDAMs externaly, plus internal munitions. I just read that this AM; but unfortunatly, I didn’t save the reference.
Ground strike mission? What ground strike mission? Says here on UN letterhead “No FLY Zone.”
Didja notice in the article that the Raptor was designed to escort the B2 on the way in to a target (kinking in the door, I believe is what the concept is) but the Raptor, with all the gee-whiz super duper electronics on board, can’t communicate with a B2!
Brings new meaning to ziplip ops. Also new meaning to Air Force advance planning.
Not so unusual, really. It came as a bit of a surprise to me, accustomed as I was to the Navy’s way of doing strike planning through air wing integration training to execution at sea – mass brief of the whole package followed by mission brief (strike, fighter, SEAD, CSAR, etc.) followed by element brief (you and me) – but at least until the USAF’s Expeditionary Air Wing experiment in the late 90s the boys in blue seemed quite content with time and space deconfliction over the telephone – you go here in the 30s, I’ll go there in the 40′s, race you back to the patch and we’ll debrief over the phone.
I guess our way of planning/briefing was easier to do when you’re all within a thousand feet of each other, all the time.
Hmmm. Been out of the loop many years, but here’s my thinking. If I were part of an integrated strike force made up of all advanced and stealth weapons, how, without any kind of link, would I know that threats I can see on my equipment are being dealt with by my escorts?
Or am I off base ’cause by the time I get there with the heavy stuff the escorts have already done their job?
“would I know that threats I can see on my equipment are being dealt with by my escorts?”
Ah…by the blips on the radar screen that start disappearing?
Actually, it’s rather a Protestant philosophy: Salvation is received not through works, but by faith alone.
“Actually, it’s rather a Protestant philosophy: Salvation is received not through works, but by faith alone.”
Ah…that would explain why I’m Catholic…show me the money!
Not to mention that the Naval Aviator is never sure that Mother is where she was when you left
Mother was always easy to find, particularly at night.
Just look under the nearest thunderstorm.
Most media pukes don’t have a clue in how the F-22s AN/ALR-94 and APG-77 work together or how A2A and A2G targeting is done. That guy is no different.
Lex, I agree that overkill is a GOOD thing in war. But in this case, I would posit that the Mudhen is more than enough overkill for the situation. Hard to beat an aircraft that was designed/modified for air to mud rather than one with probably only a tertiary air to ground mission design in place only to make the aircraft buy more palatable to the bean counters.
Then again, maybe I’m just too cynical these days.
This makes me embarrassed to be ex-USAF. But it’s not surprising.
Combination of range, threat level, mission, and payload means the F-15E is the most effective AF jet for this mission. Just because the F-22 is the most capable air to air platform out there doesn’t mean it has to do every mission, otherwise why do we have more than one type of aircraft? Even though Hornet shadows have taken over carrier decks, we’re still going to put the JSFs on there too.
For all that it tried, the AF couldn’t go all in on the Raptor in the 90s the way the Navy went all in on the Super Hornet. Partly that’s from the focus on air to air, partly that’s from starting in the Cold War and driving on through the 90s. Had the AF been able to bet more on the F-22, and at least been able to build a two seat ‘B’ version, we might have had the chance to see to know the full potential of F-22 derivative platforms, like an F/B-22, EF-22, or F-22E. We won’t now; the combination of politics, money, technology, procurement, and history have made F-22 progeny nothing but a fever dream of a repressed fiction writer’s mind. Of the many faults in the Raptor program I think that is the greatest – we’ve spent so much to perfect the platform but, in the moment where the baseline aircraft was finally ready, we’ve kneecapped ourselves from developing it out.
Also, remember, this is the President that insisted that he couldn’t have a photo op in front of an F-22 in Alaska since he didn’t like the aircraft, and it was Gates who spearheaded capping production and fired AF officers for disagreeing. I doubt that view would motivate many planners to make more than pro-forma suggestions of F-22 deployment.
F-22 pulled from photo op – http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/2009/12/02/white-house-ordered-f-22-replaced-with-f-15-for-photo-op/
That I did not know. Kinda depressing to learn, after believing Raptor was the magician who could perform all those tricks. Sounds like USAF needs to migrate F-35 technology to the Raptor. Soonest. And that thing about two bombs? Unsat.
Actually, I recall reading that Raptor has external carry capability. However, that only took things out to about a half dozen bombs, which still isn’t terribly useful. I wonder how many F-4E’s at Davis-Monthan still have much useful life left? Day two of war bomb trucks and such, you know.
Get ready – you are going to see the same kind of handwaving ref the weapons system capability when the F-35A reaches “IOC”…
w/r, SJS
Dust off some F-117s. Already been shot down, so technology presumably compromised. And as we all know, it is a fighter, RIGHT?
After I left the USAF, I learned in the real world to ‘use the simplest, most economical way to get the job done and make a profit’. That means resisting the urge to use the coolest, high tech toy for every single task. Perhaps our USAF comrades are applying the same principle. Good to know that the F-22 isn’t somebody’s hammer in search of a nail to pound. I remember someone muttering about restraint being the better part of valor.
yep Todd that was the Dutch military being all valorous while they allowed themselves to hand cuffed to various lamps to the Serbians could get on with a little bit more killing and raping on their watch.
You go on believing that restraint is the better part of valor and shit like that. Whoever wrote about the blessed F22, yeah, that’s what he meant alright. They don’t actually show up at the scene of the crime do they?
Appropos of nothing in particular, I noticed that on ESPN’s PTI show, there was a banner ad for Jerimiah Weed. Are there really that many Air Force fighter pilots watching ESPN? Or does advertising on TV remove the need for the stuff to actually taste good?