F-22 Raptors Could Become Aggressors Under Air Force's Radical New Training Plan
F-22s, which are in notoriously short supply, could perform other duties, including playing the bad guy, if new pilots needed fewer training sorties.
By Joseph TrevithickJune 23, 2020
The War Zone
The impacts of the Pentagon's short-sighted decision to stop buying F-22 Raptor stealth fighters after the production of just 195 examples have long been visible in the high costs to operate and maintain the jets and historically low readiness rates across the relatively small fleet. All of this limits how much the Air Force can get out of what is arguably its most capable air-to-air aerial combat platform. While the idea of building more Raptors is off the table, the service is hoping that radical changes to how it trains its fighter pilots will free up more of these planes for combat missions or use as high-end "red air" aggressors.
Air Force General Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, which oversees the bulk of the service's active-duty fighter jet fleets, outlined what Project Reforge, a potentially revolutionary pilot training concept he has been at the forefront of developing, could mean for the F-22s, on June 22, 2020. Holmes offered the details during a video conference the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute hosted as part of its Aerospace Nation talk series.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/34314/air-forces-radical-pilot-training-plan-could-allow-old-f-22s-to-become-aggressors
