Alaska F-22 pilots shot down a target drone with AIM-120 air-to-air missiles during a Combat Archer weapon system evaluation at Tyndall AFB, Fla., late last month. “A lot of the young guys have never seen what it looks like to actually have a missile come off the jet,” said Maj. Russell Badowski, 90th Fighter Wing director of operations from JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. “It’s good for the guys to have that experience [so] the first time [isn’t] in the heat of battle,” he added. A total of 25 Raptor pilots and a dozen F-22s spent two weeks at Tyndall validating every facet of the F-22’s weapon capability—from pilot and jet, to the missiles themselves, according to the April 9 release. Pilots also live-fired the Raptor’s 20mm M-61 cannon, and tested the jet’s internal AIM-9 launch system from March 17- 28. Due to deployments and funding constraints, the evaluation was the unit’s first since 2010.
Aeromedical evacuation Airmen are preparing for future conflicts in which scores more wounded troops may be forced to grow sicker as they wait for help to arrive across thousands of miles of ocean protected by advanced air defenses.