GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Maj. Scott Fedak, standing, and Maj. Joe Watkins were among the Air Force pilots that got the feeling of the nation's newest jet fighter, the F/A-22 Raptor, at Hickam Air Force Base yesterday.

Hickam pilots
rave over stealth
fighter cockpit

Raptor facts

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Air Force test pilots will begin field testing next summer the F/A-22 Raptor stealth jet, described as state-of-the-art "first look, first-shot, first-kill" fighter.

Nine are being evaluated by civilian test pilots hired by its contractor Lockheed Martin at Edwards Air Force Base in California, said Mark Hodge, director of Lockheed's F-22 program in Washington, D.C., who accompanied a Raptor cockpit demonstrator to Hickam Air Force Base recently.

The Raptor would replace the F-15 jet fighter, the Air Force's work horse since 1979.

Maj. Scott "Fang" Fedak, who tried out the demonstrator and has flown the F-15 in combat in Serbia in 1999 and against Iraq in the Southern no-fly zone patrols, said the F-22 is a major technological jump from the F-15. "It's like making the jump from DOS to Windows (computer operating systems)."

"The F-15 has reached its physical limits," Fedak added, "to its airframe, avionics and processing power."

Budget constraints, however, have forced Pentagon planners to study possible cuts in the program with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld supporting reducing planned F-22 purchases from 339 to 180. The Air Force also would like to have a bomber version called FB-22 that would have a twin-engine, two-man cockpit, greater range, and more weaponry, but with a higher a price tag of $150 million a plane.

COURTESY U.S. AIR FORCE An F-22 Raptor fires a missile during testing at China Lake Naval Weapons Center in July 2000.

For the fiscal year, which began this month, Lockheed won the $5 billion contract to produce 23 Raptors at its Marietta, Ga., plant, Hodge said. Last year the Air Force bought 16 of these stealth fighters and it takes about two years to build each F-22, Hodge added.

In 1999, when Lockheed began the Raptor contract, the cost of each fighter was pegged at $85 million. Since then, inflation has driven up costs and each fighter now cost $94 million.

The F-22 has integrated computerized avionics, which combines the more than 40 dials and mechanical gauges of an F-15 jet fighter into seven multicolor liquid crystal display screens.

Fedak said "the F-22 was designed from the ground up. That really pays off in its operation."

Fedak and Maj. Joe "Sloppy" Watkins, a C-130 pilot, were among the visitors to sit in the cockpit demonstrator.

Fedak said that "one of its important features is that it is somewhat invisible to enemy radar."

Watkins added a F-22 pilot also doesn't have to be constantly turning his head to scan his instruments.

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F/A-22 Raptor Function: Multimission jet fighter Length: 62 feet Wingspan: 44 feet, 5 inches Height: 16 feet, 5 inches Ceiling: 50,000-plus feet Speed: 1.5 mach Armament: Six radar-guided air-to-air missiles; two 1,000-pound bombs; two heat-seeking air-to-air missiles; one 20mm multibarrel cannon Cost: $94 million each Planned production: 339 In service: 2005