Air National Guard Testing A New Ladder That Collapses And Stows Inside The F-22 Cockpit

[rangerrebew]

Air National Guard Testing A New Ladder That Collapses And Stows Inside The F-22 Cockpit
May 9, 2023 Military AviationDAVID CENCIOTTI
 
The U.S. Air Force is constantly looking for new ways to rapidly deploy critical assets across the globe and minimizing the equipment footprint is among them.

For instance, during a recent agile combat training that involved five Air National Guard wings along with F-22 Raptor, KC-135 Stratotanker, C-17 Globemaster III and other strategic bomber aircraft, the 149th Fighter Squadron tested a pretty interesting modification to the Raptor: a new integral ladder.

“We’re testing a new ladder that collapses and stows inside the F-22 cockpit,” Lt. Col. Lawrence Dietrich, 149th Fighter Squadron commander and exercise commander and F-22 instructor pilot. “This reduces forward staging requirement of equipment and people for ingress and egress of the cockpit to zero.”

https://theaviationist.com/2023/05/09/f-22-ladder/

[rangerrebew]

Great thinking!  However, I just posted an article which says the AF thinks they will be able to get rid of F-22 in this budget, which makes this now look like a complete waste of time and money which could have been better used on projects which might be used.