By stationing elite stealth fighters just miles from the South China Sea, the Pentagon signals a massive shift in Pacific power dynamics to counter China's growing aerial fleet.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven
Launching the famous F-22 Raptor from the Philippines makes tactical and strategic sense, particularly given that the islands are merely a few hundred miles from the highly-contested South China Sea. Forward U.S. Naval presence can bring F-35Cs and F-35Bs well within operational range of the island region, yet having an ability to project 5th-generation stealth air attack power from land right near the South China Sea brings yet an additional component to U.S. deterrence strategy. Proximity is the key here, as the F-22 operates with ranges of 1,840 miles, something which would enable Philippine-launched F-22s quick access and substantial dwell time over contested portions of the South China Sea.
A recent Pentagon video showed an F-22 taking off from Basa Air Base in the Philippines during military exercises, a move perhaps intended to remind China that, despite the war in Iran, the U.S. has not relinquished its deterrence posture in the Pacific.
Growing U.S.-Philippine Military Ties
The F-22 is a solid choice to project air power from land in the Pacific, and it would make sense if the U.S. considered basing land-launched F-35As there as well, given that the U.S. has in recent years been massively increasing its military presence in the Philippines with new bases and stepped-up military cooperation.
Launching the high-speed F-22 air supremacy platform brings something to the Pacific that is not necessarily found in the F-35, as the Raptor has Mach 2.25 speed, potentially unparalleled agility and the ability to project power to offset, rival or out-perform China’s fast-growing fleet of 5th-generation J-20 aircraft.
F-22 to the 2060s
The US Air Force has for years intended to fly its F-22 Raptor well into the 2050s and even 2060s through an ambitious and continued modernization program, an effort likely gaining even more traction now as the fate of the service’s 6th-gen stealth fighter surges into existence.
Proponents of the F-22 have for decades argued that indeed the Raptor is the best air-supremacy platform in the world due to its stealth, speed, aerial maneuverability and weapons systems. Years ago, the potential superiority of the F-22 seemed to lodge itself in the minds of senior weapons developers for a number of key reasons. With round nozzles, the F-22 reportedly flies with the best “thrust-to-weight” ratio in the world at 1.37. This means it can vector, accelerate and maneuver in the air like no other aircraft.
Does the F-22 have a rival?
The closest competitor in this area would appear to be Russia’s upgraded Su-27 called the Su-35 which has a “thrust-to-weight” ratio of 3.0. However, even the advanced Russian Su-35, which has been upgraded with 4th-gen “plus” technologies, is not as stealthy as an F-22. At Mach 2.25, the F-22 appears tied with the very capable Su-35 for speed, yet there may be differences in sensing and weapons capacity that are hard to determine.
First Shot-First Kill
Regarded as the ultimate “first shot - first kill” weapons platform, the F-22 had its combat debut against ISIS in 2014 and has consistently been deployed throughout the world as a forward-positioned rapid-response attack platform.
Years ago, the Air Force started an intense “Rapid Raptor” program which placed F-22s, crews and maintenance and sustainment support in strategically vital areas of the world with the idea that F-22s could get anywhere in the world, anytime within 24 hours in the event of a crisis.
F-22 Modernization
Part of why the F-22 is so valued is in large measure due to the success of its long-standing, ambitious modernization program. The Air Force has worked with Lockheed repeatedly over the years to maintain and even improve the aircraft’s stealth coating and made a number of software, hardware and weapons upgrades to the plane in recent decades.
One of the largest and most successful F-22 modernization efforts was a now-operational, fleet-wide software upgrade called 3.2b; this initiative accomplished many things for the Raptor’s avionics, software, command and control and weapons systems.
In particular, the 3.2b software upgrade greatly enhanced the lethality and combat capability of the air-launched AIM-9X and AIM 120D missiles. Range, guidance and precision were all improved through this upgrade, and the weapons’ guidance system was “hardened” against enemy jamming.
This 3.2b upgrade became operational across the fleet many years ago, and in subsequent years the Air Force and Lockheed have improved the F-22s sensors, radar, antennas and communications technologies. For example, the F-22 can not only exchange two-way information with 4th-generation aircraft but also securely exchange two-way data with F-35s. The F-22 has also received radar upgrades and a next-generation targeting technology called Infrared Search and Track (IRST), which help sustain targeting in a higher-threat, EW environment.
There is a key lesson here which weapons developers definitely do understand about aircraft modernization, as evidenced by platforms such as the B-52 and F-16. Airframes can remain structurally sound, viable and effective for decades after a platform is built, yet weapons, software, electronics, computing, propulsion and avionics upgrades can make an aerial weapons platform an almost entirely different aircraft than it was at its inception.
F-22 Networked with F-47 & F/A-XX
As fervor regarding the F-47 and soon to emerge F/A-XX surges throughout the military world, the F-22 Raptor is quietly thriving and improving beneath the threshold of visible enthusiasm for 6th-gen platforms. Placing the Raptor in the Pacific suggests that indeed the F-22 could help network with arriving F-47s in coming years, as 5th and 6th-generation stealth aircraft will need to operate together. The existence of the F-22, its history, and perhaps of greatest importance its modernization, represents a significant element of any US Air Force fighter fleet. It is a large reason why it is a near certainty that the F-47 and F/A-XX will operate with new generations of networking transport layer communications technology. The idea is to engineer data links, interfaces and protocols sufficient to enable otherwise incompatible transport layer technologies to share information with one another in real time.
What this suggests is that the F-47 and F/A-XX will be engineered with an ability to share real-time information with the Air Force's current fleet of 169 F-22s. This will be particularly true over the next several decades as the F-47s continue to arrive in impactful numbers and the F/A-XX arrives. The F-22 has in recent years been engineered to fly into the 2050s and beyond. Any ability for F-22s, F-35s, F-47s and F/A-XXs to share real-time intelligence and targeting data with one another would prove extremely critical in a great war scenario wherein the Air Force needed to deploy a large, wide formation of attacking stealth aircraft.
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 1945. Osborn is also President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University