Farnborough Air Show: F-22 Raptor makes European début

Farnborough, England: The F-22 Raptor made its début in Europe, with US Air Force Major Paul 'Max' Moga flying the aircraft in from the Royal Air Force's Fairford base for a 12-minute display.

Lockheed Martin officials said deliveries of the fifth-generation fighter were ahead of schedule, and that 122 production aircraft had been delivered till date, of which 17 were rated "zero defect", which included seven of the last 10 deliveries.

Till the Farnborough show, the F-22 Raptor had accumulated 47,220 flying hours in over 32,509 sorties, having recorded a 70 per cent mission-capable rate. Lockheed officials say there is still some ground to be covered in terms of mean time between maintenance, with the present tally of 2.24 hours signifying that the program is "halfway there".

A day before the show began, an F-22 recorded the first supersonic release of a small diameter bomb, which Lockheed says is a cornerstone of the Raptor's combat effectiveness.

The F-22 had flown to Kadena Air Base, Japan, in 2007, and made its first trans-Atlantic deployment for the air show. The plane is preparing for a second group overseas deployment in July.

The F-22 is in active service at six US Air Force bases, with the lead base being Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The base has declared full operational capability on the type and received "high marks" in a recent operational readiness evaluation. The Langley Raptors' had achieved a 100 per cent success rate in the Combat Archer air defence exercise, and 100 per cent direct hits scored in the Combat Hammer air-to-ground exercise.

In the Northern Edge I force-on-force joint exercise, Langley F-22s achieved an 80-to-1 exchange rate in air-to-air training.

The 3rd Fighter Wing at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, took delivery of 32 F-22s, with another eight aircraft scheduled to be accepted before the year's end. Cold-weather trials were successful at Elmendorf this year, with no significant aircraft deficiencies.

Edwards AFB, home to the Increment 3.1 upgrade, adds an air-to-ground capability. While synthetic aperture radar was included on all aircraft from Lot 5, an air-to-ground imaging function is now being added.

Increment 3.2, to be introduced in 2012-13, will improve electronics, would replace the Raptor-to-Raptor datalink with one that can talk to the B-2 Spirit and F-35 Lightning II, and add the AIM-9X and AIM-120D air-to-air missiles, although Lockheed Martin would not comment on the integration or practicality of a helmet-mounted sight.

Increment 3.2 may also include a datalink that will allow the fighter to talk to other platforms.

Lockheed officials said that around 196 pilots have been trained, while a maintenance school has been set up at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, with 84 maintainers. More pilots would be available once the first of the B Course aircrew becomes operational in October, and they would also be the first to have converted directly onto the F-22 Raptor after completing basic training.

The question mark on the F-22 are the follow-on orders for the US Air Force. The original order for 750 aircraft that costs $381 million a piece has been reduced to just 183. Lockheed officials confirmed that the 31 October deadline still stands, and that the program schedule would start to be affected if there is no follow-on order before this date.

Officials say that if the production line and supply chain get interrupted on account of a cut in long-lead funding, it would directly impact the buying process for the materials needed to stay on schedule, while pointing out that the longer the gap, the more costs would escalate.