F-22 flight training begins at Virginia base after years in limbo

The Air Force has started teaching student pilots to fly the F-22 Raptor fighter jet at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, the service said June 14.

It’s a new start for the F-22 training enterprise after Hurricane Michael destroyed the mission’s sole home at Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base in 2018.

“We want to get them in the mindset of what it’s like to be in a fighter squadron, what our mission means and why it’s important,” Capt. Spencer Bell, an instructor with the new 71st Fighter Squadron, said of students in a release . “We are forging the next generation.”

Hurricane Michael — a Category 5 storm — slammed Tyndall with 160 mph winds and caused irreversible water damage and mold infestations that required the Air Force to demolish much of the base. F-22 pilots and maintainers relocated to Eglin AFB , about 90 miles west across the Florida Panhandle, to continue the training mission while the Air Force considered its next steps.

The Air Force signed off on Langley, which already hosts two F-22 combat squadrons , as the permanent site of F-22 flight training in 2021.

Tyndall’s fleet of Raptor jets began moving to Virginia in March. All 30 are expected to be in Virginia by September, Langley spokesperson Marcus Bullock said Friday.

There, training will be managed by the recently renamed 71st Fighter Squadron, which previously flew the T-38 Talon trainer jet as adversaries in F-22 combat training. Its sister unit, the 71st Fighter Generation Squadron, will handle maintenance on the stealth jets.

Student pilots arrive at the F-22 schoolhouse after spending time on basic maneuvers in two training aircraft at other bases. Once they graduate, they will head to their first operational units that fly the F-22 in combat.

The first cohort of six budding F-22 pilots has already spent three months in classroom lessons and simulator sorties at Tyndall. Students will continue doing that in Florida until those facilities are built at Langley. That will take at least three more years to get up and running, the Air Force said in January.

Now, the first class is working through six months of flight lessons at Langley to familiarize themselves with F-22 radars and weapons, basic fighter maneuvers, air combat tactics and more.

“My first flight was mind-blowing,” said F-22 student pilot Capt. Chas Ballard in the release. “I could feel the immense amount of power that the machine had to give and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever flown before.”

To support the unit, the Air Force is planning several construction projects for new facilities in the coming years. Two of those — a repair facility for the F-22′s stealth features, and a combined operations and maintenance hangar — are already underway.

Airmen have argued that Langley is better-equipped to welcome F-22s than Eglin, where it shared space with the F-35 enterprise. Virginia’s congressional delegation pushed for the relocation as well.

“While Joint Base Langley-Eustis currently has two F-22 squadrons, as well as supporting maintenance units, it was built for the beddown of three squadrons, thereby underutilizing the airspace and Air Force investment in ramp, hangar and operations support facilities,” the bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers said in 2019 . “The East Coast mid-Atlantic training ranges provide an excellent opportunity to train with other fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft in the region.”

Still, it’s unclear what the future holds for Langley’s newest flying squadron.

The Air Force is asking Congress to let it retire 32 older F-22s that aren’t equipped for combat, so it can funnel those funds into cutting-edge technology like its Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter jet program. If approved, the service believes the divestment would save about $2.5 billion over five years.

In the meantime, Tyndall is set to receive its own new mission — the F-35 Lightning II — starting in August.

Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.

美国空军于6月14日宣布，已开始在弗吉尼亚州兰利-尤斯蒂斯联合基地训练学员飞行员驾驶F-22猛禽战斗机。

在 2018 年飓风迈克尔摧毁了佛罗里达州廷德尔空军基地，F-22 训练项目的唯一基地之后，这是一个新的开始。

“我们希望让他们体会到战斗机中队的生活，明白我们的任务意味着什么以及为什么它如此重要，”新成立的第71战斗机中队教官斯宾塞·贝尔上尉在一份新闻稿中谈到学员时说。“我们正在培养下一代。”

五级飓风“迈克尔”以每小时160英里的风速袭击了廷德尔空军基地，造成了不可逆转的水灾和霉菌滋生，迫使空军拆除了基地的大部分设施。F-22战斗机的飞行员和维护人员转移到位于佛罗里达狭长地带以西约90英里的埃格林空军基地，继续执行训练任务，同时空军也在考虑下一步的应对措施。

2021 年，美国空军正式批准兰利空军基地（该基地已驻扎两个 F-22 战斗机中队）成为 F-22 飞行训练的永久基地。

廷德尔空军基地的猛禽战斗机机队从3月份开始向弗吉尼亚州转移。兰利空军基地发言人马库斯·布洛克周五表示，预计所有30架飞机都将在9月份抵达弗吉尼亚州。

届时，训练工作将由最近更名的第71战斗机中队负责，该中队此前曾驾驶T-38“鹰爪”教练机作为F-22战斗机作战训练的假想敌。其姊妹单位第71战斗机代队中队将负责隐形战机的维护工作。

学员飞行员们在其他基地驾驶两架训练机完成基础飞行训练后，抵达F-22战斗机学校。毕业后，他们将前往各自的作战部队，驾驶F-22战斗机执行作战任务。

首批六名F-22战斗机新飞行员已在廷德尔空军基地完成了三个月的课堂学习和模拟器飞行训练。在兰利空军基地的相关设施建成之前，学员们将继续在佛罗里达州进行训练。空军在1月份表示，兰利基地的相关设施至少还需要三年才能建成并投入使用。

现在，第一批学员正在兰利进行为期六个月的飞行课程，以熟悉 F-22 的雷达和武器、基本的战斗机机动、空战战术等等。

“我的第一次飞行令人震撼，”F-22学员飞行员查斯·巴拉德上尉在新闻稿中说道。“我能感受到这架飞机蕴含的巨大动力，这与我以前驾驶过的任何飞机都截然不同。”

为了支持该部队，空军计划在未来几年内建设多个新设施。其中两个项目——F-22隐形部件维修设施和作战维护综合机库——已经开工建设。

空军人员认为，兰利空军基地比埃格林空军基地更适合接收F-22战机，因为在埃格林，F-22战机与F-35战机共用场地。弗吉尼亚州的国会代表团也推动了此次搬迁。

“虽然兰利-尤斯蒂斯联合基地目前驻扎着两个F-22中队以及相应的维护单位，但该基地最初的设计容量是三个中队，因此未能充分利用空域和空军在停机坪、机库和作战保障设施方面的投资，”这个由两党两院议员组成的小组在2019年表示。“东海岸中大西洋地区的训练靶场为与该地区其他第四代和第五代战机进行联合训练提供了绝佳的机会。”

不过，兰利最新飞行中队的未来仍然不明朗。

美国空军正请求国会允许其退役32架老旧的、不具备作战能力的F-22战斗机，以便将节省下来的资金投入到尖端技术研发中，例如其下一代空中优势战斗机项目。如果获得批准，空军认为这项资产剥离计划将在五年内节省约25亿美元。

与此同时，廷德尔空军基地将于 8 月开始接收其新的任务——F-35 闪电 II 战斗机。

瑞秋·科恩是《空军时报》的编辑。她于2021年3月加入该刊物，担任高级记者。她的作品曾发表在《华盛顿邮报》、《弗雷德里克新闻邮报》（马里兰州）、《空军与太空部队杂志》、《国防内幕》、《卫生政策内幕》等刊物上。