11/8/02
– EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The F/A-22 Combined Test Force at Edwards
successfully accomplished its first supersonic, guided missile launch Nov.
5. This latest Raptor test mission demonstrated the aircraft’s ability to
employ the Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile at high Mach against a
high altitude, high Mach target.
Flying Raptor 4007, F/A-22 test pilot Maj. Jim Dutton launched an AIM-120
AMRAAM from an altitude of 35,000 feet while supercruising without
afterburners at an airspeed of 1.5 Mach. Dutton’s target was a rocket drone
traveling in excess of Mach 2 and at an altitude of 51,000 feet. The
missile, which had no warhead, flew within lethal range of the target and,
from preliminary data analysis, was assessed a kill.
“The ability to take long-range missile shots at an adversary, while at
the lower fuel flows that supercruise provides, will be a significant
tactical advantage to the warfighter,” said Dutton after the flight.
The rocket drone was launched from a manned F-4 aircraft that took off
from Point Mugu Naval Air Station in southern California. Dutton launched
the missile over the Pacific Missile Test Range that runs from Point Mugu
northward along the central California coastline.
According to F/A-22 flight test engineer and test conductor Maj. Jim
Colebank, all of the objectives of the mission were met with the Raptor
successfully passing data-link parameters to the AIM-120 allowing the
missile to guide within lethal range of the target.
Getting such a mission off the ground takes the dedication of hundreds of
people from the maintainers getting the aircraft ready to fly to those in
the control rooms making sure the test ranges are clear, added Colebank.
“It was a tremendous team effort,” he said. “We were all very happy with
the outcome of the mission – the Raptor avionics performed flawlessly.”
Dutton called the flight test “the best avionics mission” he has seen to
date.
“The avionics system performance was superb, providing a long-range
detection and track of the target drone,” he said. “The situational
awareness the Raptor provides to the pilot is a huge step forward from any
of our current fighters.”
The successful test also demonstrated criteria set forth by the Defense
Department’s acquisition community, which helps to guide the Raptor’s flight
test priorities. The DoD criteria called for a supercruising Raptor to
employ a guided AMRAAM from supersonic conditions before the end of 2002.
