New life for the Raptor

Now that Rumsfeld is finally gone, there may be more hope for the F-22.

Here is an interesting article about the F-117 retirement and the F-22 which suggests exactly what I've been thinking, the F-117 should be upgraded and its service life extended to fill the stealth gap.



Also, the Air Force finally acknowledged the existence of an aggressor program using Soviet fighters:

PRESS RELEASE -- Secretary of the Air Force, Office of Public Affairs

Release No. 071106
November 13,2006

AF Declassifies Elite Aggressor Program

WASHINGTON - After decades of secrecy, the Air Force today acknowledged that it flew Communist-built fighters at the Tonopah Test Range northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

From 1977 through 1988, the program, known as CONSTANT PEG, saw U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine aircrews flying against Soviet-designed MiG fighters as part of a training program where American pilots could better learn how to defeat or evade the Communist bloc's fighters of the day.

Brigadier General Hawk Carlisle, 3rd Wing commander at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, is a former member of the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron who remembers the valuable training the unit provided.

"CONSTANT PEG afforded pilots an opportunity to learn how to fight enemy aircraft in a controlled, safe environment, without having to endure the risks of actual air combat," said Brig. Gen. Carlisle. "Typically a pilot would start with a basic familiarization flight to observe the enemy airplane and study its characteristics, practicing "one-on-one" defensive and offensive maneuvers against it, and finally, experience multi-bogey engagements high over the desert scrubland of the Nellis Air Force Base ranges.

As a result of marginal performance of American fighter forces in the skies over North Vietnam, CONSTANT PEG complemented other revolutionary training programs such as Red Flag, Top Gun and the Air Force and Navy-Marine aggressor squadrons. The program was also intended to eliminate the "buck fever" or nervous excitement many pilots experience on their first few combat missions. Historical experience indicated that pilots who survived their first ten missions were much more likely to survive a complete combat tour, and CONTSTANT PEG was intended to teach them the right "moves" to enable them to come out on top of any engagement.

The end of the CONSTANT PEG nearly coincided with the end of the Cold War, by which time some of its "graduates" had already proven themselves in actual air combat.

Threat aircraft flown by the Red Eagles spanned several decades and technical generations of capability. There was the MiG-17 Fresco, a small, agile single-seat transonic fighter placed in service just after the Korean War and used extensively over Vietnam and the Middle East; the MiG-21 Fishbed, a high supersonic fighter used world-wide in large numbers, and the swing-wing MiG-23 Flogger, likewise in global service, an attempt by the Soviets to match the sophisticated capabilities of the F-4 Phantom.

"Although it came too late to influence Vietnam, CONSTANT PEG training greatly influenced the success of American Airmen in DESERT STORM, who shot down 40 Iraqi fighters, many of which were Fishbeds and Floggers," said Brig Gen. Carlisle.

Note: There will be a press conference at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Nov 16 at 1 p.m. Media interested in covering the press conference should contact the Museum Public Affairs office at 937-255-4704, ext. 332, 333 or 330.

Yet Another F-22 Mission

This article revels yet another use for the F-22, which really does seem to have capabilities far beyond any predecessor. What I find inexplicable however, is that the Air Force expects the F-22 to fill all of its roles. (this is starting to remind me of the Navy and the Superhornet) It if works, great. But The Air Force is only expecting to get 183 airframes, and several of these are allocated to training and tactics development. So, to begin with the F-22 has to replace over 500 F-15Cs in the Air-to-Air role, then it has to support the F-15E and F-16 in the attack role. In addition, the USAF then decided it could take over the role of the F-117 (although, it now appears that the Nightwawk retirement will be pushed back a few years), and now it sees the Raptor assuming the EW role that was left vacant by the EF-111 ten years ago. I fail to see that the Raptor is THAT good, where it will be able to replace over 700 aircraft with these small numbers. My confidence in the DoD to deal with the forthcoming "train wreck" continues to erode.

The 148th Bulldogs

Here's an article I wrote for wikipedia about my "homestate" F-16 unit. After I originally posted it, someone tried to modify it, resulting in complete destruction of the article, but I've now restored it and hope that it stays intact.

Area 51?

Here's an interesting new article by Bill Sweetman about Area 51. Its good to see that Bill's still on the hunt for the elusive Aurora. Its obvious that there has been a fair amount of activity there in the 90s and 2000s, besides Tacit Blue,the Polecat and the Bird of Prey. We still don't know anything about the elusive YF-24 and YF-113G, and there are rumors of a FB-23 prototype, and/or a "Switchblade" fighter. Its interesting that Sweetman thinks that development could be continuing on the A-12, abandonded in 1991 with the $4 Billion prototypes never seen.

Tomcat Sunset

Now that the F-14 is officially and finally retired we move into a new era of aviation, probably the last era of manned fighters. I've been wondering why so many Tomcats were scrapped onsite at Oceana, and why so fast. Beside that apparent fact that many airframes are no longer airworthy, it seems th government is shredding the planes as soon as possible to prevent parts from being smuggled out to Iran. This does not inspire confidence that the F-14 legacy will live on in the form of Flyable airframes that can live on at airshows.

Weapons are not entertainment

This was the sloggan of the protesters at the 2006 Duluth Airshow.