The head of Air Combat Command told reporters visiting Langley AFB, Va., Tuesday that a recently released DOD test and evaluation report aside, the F-22A is combat ready. Gen. Ronald Keys said that some data contained in such reports—in this case the 2006 annual DOT&E report—is simply old. The report claims, according to Reuters news service, that there are problems with the new stealth fighter’s defensive avionics and its diagnostics. Keys maintains such problems are common with new aircraft and that pilots and maintainers flying and maintaining operational Raptors rate the aircraft as outstanding. He recommends taking test reports with “a grain of salt.”
Denys Overholser, the Lockheed Martin engineer whose insights on the mathematics of radar cross section led directly to the first operational stealth attack airplane and permanently reshaped combat aircraft design and tactics, died April 28 at the age of 86.