The F-22 Raptor

Washington Post staff writer Renae Merle was online to discuss her article about the debate over the Pentagon's newest fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor. She was joined by Air Force Maj. Charles Corcoran, one of a handful of pilots training for the first combat-ready F/A-22 squadron.

Read Merle's Story: "Military Jet Faces A Fight to Fit In." Or watch a video of the F/A-22 in flight and meet one of the pilots training to fly the plane in combat. A news graphic provides a timeline of the plane's 20-year development.

A transcript follows:

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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washingtonpost.com: From Renae Merle: Thanks for joining us. I am very pleased to be here with Maj. Charles Corcoran, an F/A-22 pilot stationed at Langley Air Force Base. In fact, Maj. Corcoran was one of the first pilots trained in the Raptor, so we're really lucky to have him here. Last month, the folks at Langley were good enough to allow me to shadow them during a training flight and to tour the facilities out there. I was flying in an F-15 with "Schadow," who will start F/A-22 training soon, while Lt. Col. James Hecker, known as "Scorch," flew the Raptor. It was an amazing experience.

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Alexandria, Va.: Maj. Corcoran, From a pilot's perspective, what's the biggest selling point of the F/A-22?

Maj. Corcoran: From my perspective the number one selling point of the F/A-22 is stealth. Stealth allows the F/A-22 to access environments that current fighters cannot enter. Without access to the skies over the battlefield we cannot accomplish the mission and we cannot support our personnel on the ground.

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Ithaca, NY: What does the Air Force plan to do when their current F-15s get worn out? Are they going to just reduce the size of the interceptor fleet or will they buy more new fighters to replace them? How much difference is there in the price between a new F-15 and a new F-22 (excluding R&D costs since those are already paid)?

Renae Merle: The Air Force has already begun to retire some of its oldest F-15s. While the Raptors will replace them it will not be on an 1 to 1 basis. Basically the idea is that one Raptor can do the work of more than one F-15.

The numbers are fuzzy. But excluding R&D, the Raptor is still about $20 million more than a new F-15. The estimated cost of a new F-15 can run between $70 million to $90 million, while a Raptor can run $110 million or so. The Air Force would argue (in strong terms) that with the Raptor you are getting a much more capable plane for not much more money.

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Tangier, Morroco: How does the F22/A compare to the latest Foreign fighters available in other countries such as the Sukhoi 35/37 and the Eurofighter? Would European countries consider purchasing the F22 sometime in the future to replace their current fighters or is the F22 too advanced technologically for the US to consider selling? Thank you

Renae Merle: Well, I don't think there is an aviation expert out there who doesn't agree that the Raptor is the most advanced fighter out there. I haven't heard anyone suggest that the foreign fighters you mentioned are comparable.

As to foreign sales ... Congress has already said no to that. It is possible they could lift that restriction later, but even then the Raptor is so expensive there aren't that many countries out there who could afford it. And the Pentagon is usually conservative about exporting its most advanced technology, so I wouldn't be looking for that any time soon.

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Scranton, PA: What are the differences between the F-22 and the F-35 other than price?

Maj. Corcoran: The F/A-22 and F-35 are designed to complement one another. Neither airplane can replace the other. The F/A-22 is the only platform that can "knock down the door" to anti-access threat environments. It's speed, stealth and integrated avionics are unmatched. It is also an ISR platform (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance). It can go places no other airplane can, gather valuable information and feed that information back to the commanders and decision makers. Once the F/A-22 knocks down the door the F-35 will bring a large payload of air-to-ground ordnance to bear on the enemy.

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Red Bank, NJ: The recent Air Force exercise with the Indian Air Force proved that the SU-27/Su-30 is far superior to the F-15 (with the exception of BVR (beyond visual range) combat). This air craft is being sold in large numbers to China and is in the air forces of many small nations in Africa and Asia. If Congress cuts the number of F-22s for the Air Force, how do they plan to deal with the proliferation of SU-27/30's? Are any political deals in the works to prevent the sale of SU-27/30's to belligerent nations?

Renae Merle: I heard a lot about this exercise. The Air Force acknowledges they were impressed with the capabilities of the Indian's Air Force and said their fighters were capable than expected. But F-15 supporters note that the Eagles sent to the exercise were not the most capable in the fleet and that the training exercise measured not just the planes' capabilities, but the pilots' training etc.

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Reston, Va: Isn't 381 planes (or even half of that) overkill? How many comparable fighters do China and Russia currently have?

Renae Merle: I am not sure about the number of planes that those countries have, but those are the types of questions that will be tackled by the Quadrennial Defense Review that the Pentagon is currently conducting.

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Baton Rouge, Louisiana: How likely is it that the F-22 along with the development of the Joint Strike Fighter cause either an edging out or complete retirement of the F-16 class fighter?

Renae Merle: I am not sure I completely get this question. But the Joint Strike Fighter will replace the F-16. In fact, I believe, the Air Force has already begun retiring some of its F-16 of which there are thousands. The question some ask is will the JSF edge out the Raptor.

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Germantown: Is the aircraft a "true" fighter?

Maj. Corcoran: The F/A-22 is truly one of a kind. Although it has all the attributes of a great fighter it also incorporates the information gathering capabilities of some of our best reconnaissance platforms, the bomber/attack capabilities of some of our best strike platforms and the stealth qualities of our B-2 and F-117. It not only incorporates these capabilities into a single platform but it improves upon every one of them. It is faster, more maneuverable and more lethal than any current fighter or any one we know of on the drawing board. The information gathering capability is eyewatering. The stealth is next generation, allowing the Raptor to do things that even the B-2 and F-117 can't. This makes it much more than a "fighter". A good illustration of this is the discussion of the kill chain...FIND-FIX-TRACK-TARGET-ENGAGE-ASSESS. For example, if we want to destroy a moving target such as a SCUD missile launcher we need to do the following: FIND it, FIX its location (coordinates), TRACK it with a sensor, assign an airplane to TARGET it, that airplane then ENGAGES the target, then we must ASSESS whether we were successful. Current fighters may be able to TRACK the target but most can only ENGAGE. The Raptor can perform almost every step in the kill chain using its onboard sensors. This result is a shorter kill chain and a higher probability of success on a fluid battlefield.

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Ottawa, Canada: I've no dog in this hunt. I'm not USAF, not employed by a builder, not even American. But the F-22 is designed to protect against FUTURE threats. You claim, in your article that China has no AWACs capability (you quote an analyst).

But in the Wapo, Nov 12, 2004, there's an article noting the testing of homegrown Chinese AWACs. There is widely available coverage in the WaPo for 5 years, and generally for at least 8 on Chinese AWACs.

This makes that segment of your article at best misleading...

Your article seems to take a lawyerish view... that there is no threat this exact SECOND... so why bother? But engineers, scientists, military strategists, even journalists and politicians realize that you have to protect against the future.

Regards

Renae Merle: That is certainly what the Air Force and many military analysts believe. Often what I heard is that we can't predict what will happen in 10 or 15 years. We have no idea what new technology future adversaries will develop. The Raptor, they say, is an insurance policy against tomorrow's threat.

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Washington, DC: I read somewhere that the F-22 missions are all pre-programmed and provided on DVD, hand delivered to the pilot (for security reasons). I don't understand how that could work in a changing time-critical situation.

On the other hand, if orders are conveyed electronically from the ground or elsewhere, how is that line secure from and not "spoofable" by an enemy?

Am I watching too much "24"?

Maj. Corcoran: I watch "24" every now and then myself...that's not how we do business. The F/A-22's sophisticated sensors can all be pre-programmed to operate in a specific manner. The information is carried to the aircraft by the pilot via a data transfer device. The pilot can get airborne very quickly after starting the airplane and the sensors will operate basically "hands free" if the pilot wants it that way. If things change the pilot can easily manipulate the sensors via controls in the cockpit. Nothing needs to be datalinked from the ground to control the aircraft. However, if there is a need to pass secure information to the pilot to achieve an objective that capability exists.

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Falls Church, VA: I noted that the Washington Post article calculated the unit price of the F/A-22 by dividing the total cost, including RDT&E, by the number of airplanes. What is the unit flyaway cost for the new fighter?

Renae Merle: The fly away costs depend on how many are produced. But if the Air Force buys only 179 of the aircraft, the fly away cost would be about $131 million. For 381 aircraft, the fly away costs drop to about $106.4 million.

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Buffalo, NY: Do you see the F/A 22 and the JSF as the last manned fighter/bombers that the Airforce will ever research and build?

Renae Merle: That is an interesting question. The Pentagon is spending a lot of money on unmanned planes these days. The Predator in particular is popular. I have even heard some in the Air Force suggest that perhaps the next bomber will be an unmanned plane. But the technology still can't mimic the innate abilities of a pilot.

Maj. Corcoran: This is an interesting question and one we often discuss. I think we will see a continuing growth in the number and types of unmanned aerial vehicles. However, for the foreseeable future there will need to be a man or woman in the loop with eyes on the target/eyes over the battlefield to provide the "human touch". For example, we have yet to design a system that can correctly identify air and surface targets beyond visual range with 100% accuracy. In fact, there are times (seldom, but it happens) when the computers give the wrong answer. In combat this could spell disaster without a human there to override the engagement decision.

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Ashburn, VA: Do you believe the Raptor should be used for ground attack missions at all or kept as an air superiority fighter and leave the ground attack missions to the JSF?

Renae Merle: Everyone agrees that it is completely impractical to reserve the Raptor for air to air fights, when there is no plane out there that it can't defeat. Its ground capabilities make it relevant, especially with the proliferation of SAMS around the world.

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Dayton, OH: Two questions:

What other aircraft (that you can mention) have you piloted?

With the transition of enemy threats going from conventional to urban warfare, what role will the F/A 22 play in the latter scenario?

Maj. Corcoran: I flew the F-15C for seven years prior to transitioning to the F/A-22.

The US military needs to be prepared for all levels of conflict, from combating terrorists in an urban warfare scenario to full-scale war with another nation-state. The F/A-22 is one of the few platforms that can contribute across the entire spectrum. In the urban warfare scenario the F/A-22 can deliver very precise GPS-guided ordnance to destroy high value targets while limiting collateral damage.

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Washington D.C.: Could you comment on the issue of tunnel vision and Iraq? From my view, while we must win in Iraq, we must not get tunnel vision with this conflict and ignore other dangerous threats. This happened after Kosovo when the Air Force carried the day and the Army was a mess. People said the Army was irrelevant and that the AF was king. Today the exact opposite is happening. Neither situation is correct and we need to have a balanced approach that takes into account all the variables we may face in the future.

Maj. Corcoran: I couldn't agree with you more. The US military is charged with the nation's defense and must be prepared to respond across a broad spectrum. We can't afford to fight "the last war". We must look forward. Many pundits say there was no air war in Iraq. In fact, there was a significant air war. It started in 1991 when air superiority was gained over the skies of Iraq by destroying numerous surface-to-air missile batteries and shooting down 30+ enemy aircraft. For the next 10+ years we maintained that aerial dominance by patrolling the no-fly zones. When our troops on the ground needed air support it was not a question because we owned the skies over their head. We cannot forget that and we mustn't take air superiority for granted.

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Arlington, VA: When was the last US air-air engagement with an adversary that you would consider a 'dogfight'. By that I mean using guns, or maybe sidewinder.

Maj. Corcoran: The last engagement that resulted in the shootdown of an enemy aircraft within visual range was in Kosovo.

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Washington, D.C.: Renee,

What was it like flying in a fighter jet? Was that your first time?

Renae Merle: It was my first time and I had no idea what to expect. In fact, I think I underestimated the experience until I was walking up the ladder to get into the back seat of the F-15 and my pilot, "Schadow" (who is a very cool guy), was strapping me in. There was all kinds of worst case scenario training and they even gave me a locker in the pilot's dressing room. The worst part was when we were pulling "g's." It felt like someone put a one ton weight on top of me. It is really hard to comprehend what complex and amazing machines these planes are until you are watching them in flight or trying to watch them -- I closed my eyes a couple of times. I was really lucky to gain that experience and I will never forget it. The people at Langley were really gracious in showing me the ropes, especially Maj. Corcoran and Lt. Col. Hecker, who spent a lot of time with us.

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Alexandria: For Major Corcoran: The F/A-22 is clearly a amazing technical specimen -- a fighter pilot's dream machine.

But, practically speaking, wouldn't upgrading the F-15C radar to the APG-63(v)3 or (v)4 standard make more sense for the US taxpayer if the concern is addressing the sensor capabilities of the new SU-30MKIs? That gives you all the BVR capabilities you need, negating the presumed SU-30's advantages in a close dogfight with the F-15.

Maj. Corcoran: No. The number one thing the taxpayers get with the Raptor is STEALTH - it allows the Raptor to access environments the F-15 and other current fighters can't get near. No amount of money could make the F-15, F-16 or F-18 stealth fighters. Upgrading the radar on the Eagle would give it some more capability but it wouldn't compare to the sensors on the Raptor that provide the pilot with a 360 degree color picture of the battlefield...surface and air. And this isn't just about air-to-air combat. It's about purchasing a weapons system that can contribute across the entire spectrum of conflict. Current fighters can't do that...the Raptor can.

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Washington, DC: Why are there two fighter plane programs in existence in the first place (Raptor and JSF)? If the two planes are so similar, it's almost like an auto manufacturer rebadging a vehicle that ends up competing with the first one.

Maj. Corcoran: These are different airplanes, different weapons systems designed to achieve different affects.

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Washington, DC: Can Maj. Corcoran describe what it is like to fly the Raptor? Thanks.

Maj. Corcoran: The Raptor is a pilot's dream. It is easy to operate, nearly invisible to the enemy, provides the pilot with 360 degree situational awareness and it's FAST!

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Madrid, España: Would a new upgraded F-15 be a credible and viable option?

Renae Merle: Hello from Madrid, thanks for the question. The Air Force argues that even an updated F-15 will still be based on an old design and that for just a little more money it can get a much, much more capable plane. I don't think anyone is saying that the F-15 is comparable to the F/A-22. The F-15 doesn't even have stealth. But some wonder whether the Air Force could buy fewer Raptors and supplement the fleet with new Eagles.

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Stafford, VA: Major - Does the F/A-22 have an infantry support capability or is is purely an air to air fighter?

Renae Merle: It was designed as an air to air fighter, but its mission now includes infantry support and other attack capabilities. Thus changing the name from F-22 to F/A-22. The plane currently carries JDAMS, but will eventually also be equipped with small diameter bombs.

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washingtonpost.com:

Maj. Corcoran, Renae Merle, thank you for joining us today. This has been a very information discussion. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions today.

Maj. Corcoran: Thank you. I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer all of your questions but hopefully I've provided you with a better understanding of what the Raptor can do and why it is vital to the future of our military and our nation's defense.

Renae Merle: Again, I want to thank everyone (especially Maj. Corcoran) for joining us and for all the great questions. I'm sorry we didn't get to all the everyone.

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