Airmen and F-22s from the active duty 90th Fighter Squadron and Air Force Reserve Command’s 302nd FS at JB Elmendorf, Alaska, are in Florida for three weeks of Combat Archer air-to-air training at Tyndall Air Force Base. Members of the 90th Aircraft Maintenance Unit have made the trip with them. For the pilots, this training is their first opportunity to fire live air-to-air missiles from their F-22s, some of USAF’s newest Raptors. “Particularly, because these jets are brand new, this program allows first-time jets and pilots to experience what it feels like to fire a missile while in flight” prior to actual combat, said Lt. Col. Joseph Kunkel, 90th FS commander. The pilots will also employ the F-22’s 20mm gun and drop 1,000-pound joint direct attack munitions over the Gulf of Mexico during the training flights. (Elmendorf report by SrA. Cynthia Spalding)
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.