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Want to fly the Raptor? Get in line

Got dreams of becoming an F-22A Raptor pilot? If you do, your best bet for the near future is learning to fly an F-15C Eagle or scoring high in undergraduate pilot training so you can go into the F-22A pilot pipeline.

The Air Force is in the early stages of assigning first lieutenants straight out of the introductory fighter fundamentals course to F-22A training at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. But the Air Force is limiting F-22A training slots for veteran pilots to aviators cross-training out of F-15Cs.

While Air Force leaders want about 388 Raptors, Congress has capped the Air Force’s F-22A buy at 183 jets. If the limit sticks, that means the service will need around 230 to 275 F-22A pilots at any given time.

Today, the Air Force has two operational F-22A combat squadrons at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and a training squadron at Tyndall. A fourth squadron is building up at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, and more squadrons are pegged for Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.

At Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, seven student pilots and one first-assignment instructor pilot are vying to become one of the four pilots assigned to the F-22A as their first fighter.

The eight officers are taking an introduction to fighter fundamentals course at the 435th Fighter Training Squadron, designed to prepare pilots for the F-22A.

First Lt. Austin Skelley is one of the eight with a 50-50 shot at climbing into the cockpit of an operational F-22A. While a student pilot at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, Skelley put the F-22A at the top of his dream sheet. After finishing at the top of his class, he got his wish.

Now, every time he gets ready to fly an AT-38 Talon, Skelley tries to put that F-22A dream out of his mind.

“I just try not to think about anything but my next flight,” he said.

The commander of the training squadron, Lt. Col. Dan Carlson, said the eight students are not trying to get an edge over each other.

“They are working very well together,” he said.

For the most part, the students are flying the same fighter fundamentals course F-15C candidates fly, Carlson said. The main difference will be near the end, when the F-22A students get three additional flights in air-to-air combat scenarios that have them and another jet defending against a third jet. The goal of the additional flights isn’t to see who can win a dogfight but to give the students more experience establishing their fighter’s role and position, Carlson said.

The fighter fundamentals course is expected to end shortly before Christmas. No date is set for when the students will learn who will be heading to the Raptor. The students not selected will likely go on to F-15C school, Carlson said.

The current plan calls for the F-22 students to begin the Raptor course in the spring, Carlson said. However, before the new pilots get to make their first flight in a single-seat F-22A, they’ll get a few sorties in a two-seat F-15 or F-16, where they will experience 9G maneuvers for the first time.

While the Air Force is preparing to let first lieutenants fly Raptors, the service is limiting which veteran pilots get a seat in the fifth-generation fighter.

When Raptor training started in earnest about three years ago, a cross-section of fighter pilots was assigned to F-22A cockpits with the idea that F-15E, F-16, A-10 and F-117 aviators would bring their ground attack experience to Raptor squadrons while F-15C pilots would add their air-to-air combat expertise to the mix.

Also, many F-15C pilots were grandfathered into Raptor positions because F-22As replaced their Eagles.

As of October, former F-15C pilots comprise about 68 percent of the active-duty F-22A pilot community, according to the Air Force. However, the percentage of former F-15C pilots will rise.

Last spring, Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley directed that 85 percent of active-duty Raptor pilots must have F-15C backgrounds. Reaching that goal requires the service to change who goes to F-22A school.

“Since we are drawing down the F-15C inventory as we stand up the Raptor, I’m directing that 100 percent of the new [to the F-22A] active-duty pilots entering the Raptor community be previous F-15C pilots,” Moseley wrote in an April letter. Guard and Reserve pilots switching to the F-22A are exempted from Moseley’s directive.

Moseley’s policy allows for exceptions, such as bringing in student pilots. It has not been determined how many will join the Raptor community each year.

Once the 85 percent goal is reached in a few years, the F-15C-only rule will be relaxed.

The last F-16 pilot to switch to the F-22 — at least for now — began training at Tyndall in September. He had been picked for the F-22 in January, prior to Moseley’s decision. Moseley predicted that when the Air Force begins standing up F-35 Lightning II training and operational squadrons later this decade, pilots from aircraft the F-35 is replacing — primarily the F-16 and A-10 — will have a preference for F-35 school slots.