July 13, 2007:
With several dozen F-22s now in service, the aircraft is being exposed
to a lot of practice air-to-air combat. So far, the kill ratio is about a
hundred to one in favor of the F-22. The new fighter has been "shot down" in
these exercises twice. Once by a U.S. Navy F-18F, and once by an F-16C piloted
by a member of the U.S. Air Force 64th Aggressor Squadron (pilots trained to
operate like those from various foreign countries.)
There have also been some secret exercises where
the air force tries out tactics they believe potential enemies could be
developing to defeat F-22s. Although the F-22 is a superior aircraft, probably
the best fighter on the planet, and the best pilots tend to get assigned to fly
them, air force commanders around the world realize that there is no such thing
as an invincible aircraft. The United States learned this the hard way in the
1960s, when superior U.S. fighters, flown by experienced pilots, took unexpectedly
heavy casualties from Russian, Chinese and North Vietnamese pilots flying what
were, on paper, inferior aircraft. But the enemy initially sized up the
situation more realistically and shrewdly than did their American opponents. By
the end of the '60s, the U.S. had adapted, and once more ruled the skies. But
it was a lesson American fighter pilots have never forgotten, despite the
tendency for warriors at the top of the heap to believe they have a right to be
where they are.
American intelligence has already detected efforts
by the Russians and Chinese to come up with special equipment and tactics to
erode the F-22s aerial superiority. So the air force tries to reproduce some of
those new ploys, in training exercises, and look for ways to maintain the F-22s
superiority. The air force is basing two squadrons in Alaska, so that it can
quickly be shifted to hot spots in the Pacific.