Considered the world's most capable operational air superiority weapon, the F/A-22 Raptor's roots extend back to 1981, when the Air Force argued for a more advanced fighter than its frontline McDonnell Douglas F-15s. At the time, the justification was the need to counter (then) new developments in Soviet fighter aircraft technology. By Sept. 7, 1997, when an engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) aircraft, then known as the F-22, made its first flight, the Soviet Union was history.

A unique maintenance support program, involving two private/public partnerships between airframe and engine OEMs, and some of the government's largest air logistics centers, is well underway as the U.S. Air Force continues to build up its fleet of soon-to-be combat-ready F/A-22 Raptors. These partnerships are unprecedented according to representatives of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., the airframe prime contractor; and Pratt & Whitney, the vendor of the 36,000-pound thrust F119-PW-100 engines that power the twinjet fighter.

Flying into austere airfields under diminished visual conditions always has been an occupational hazard for military transport pilots. Because these facilities generally have no precision approach radar, or instrument landing systems, they are impossible to access and land on when ceilings and forward visibility are zero/zero due to fog, snow, rain, dust, or smoke. But that could be changing if an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) demonstration project proves successful.