As reported in Defense Aerospace, the U.S. Air Force recently announced: “The 1st Fighter Wing held a ceremony here today to celebrate the F-22A Raptor’s initial operational capability. The IOC declaration proves the F-22A is mission ready. The base now has 19 Raptors…”
Strike up the band! The F-22 is finally operational. First, some background; I’m very familiar with the history of this procurement. Back in July of 1987, I visited Wright-Patterson AFB to interview Colonel Fain, the System Program Office manager for what was then dubbed the “Advanced Tactical Fighter.” This interview was for a feature article in Defense Electronics magazine. (See Defense Electronics, September, 1987, p. 61.) What Col. Fain was preaching sounded like real Hotel Sierra to me. This plane, he promised, was going to be a real dandy fighter, with an awesome engine that would allow “super cruise” (the ability to fly faster than the speed of sound without afterburner), and awesome avionics. But I understood that I had to be patient…
Development on the ATF actually began way back in 1981, and the concept stage started several years before that. Assembly of the first aircraft didn’t begin until 1991. First flight of a prototype was in September of 1997. (For a timeline of ATF development, see http://www.f22fighter.com/timeline.htm) And now, 24 years later, the first squadron of F-22As has finally been declared operationally ready. A 24 year development cycle? Incredible! If the War Department had had a development cycle for major weapons systems that was that long back in the 1930s, we would still be slugging it out with the Germans in North Africa. The U.S. military procurement system has become so bureaucratically convoluted and hidebound that it barely functions. For the good of the taxpayers and especially for the sake of our troops, something has to change.