OVER VIRGINIA -- Lt. Col. James Hecker flies over Fort Monroe before delivering the first operational F/A-22 Raptor to its permanent home at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on May 12. This is the first of 26 Raptors to be delivered to the 27th Fighter Squadron. The Raptor program is managed by the F/A-22 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Colonel Hecker is the squadron's commander. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker)
By Pat Host |
10 years ago |
09/23/2014

The Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet this week saw its first combat action nearly nine years after initial operational capability was declared.

The Defense Department said Tuesday the F-22 deployed Global Positioning System- (GPS) guided munitions during Monday strikes against the terrorist group known as ISIL in Syria. The F-22 is capable of carrying two 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) from internal weapons bays in its air-to-ground configuration, according to an Air Force fact sheet.

The F-22. Photo: Air Force.
The F-22. Photo: Air Force.

DoD spokeswoman Cmdr. Elissa Smith Tuesday declined to say which weapons were deployed from the F-22 during strikes. JDAM is developed by Boeing [BA].

DoD Director of Operations (J-3) Army Lt. Gen William Mayville said Tuesday in a briefing that the Syria attacks came in three waves. First wave included Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) launched from the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) in the Red Sea and the USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) in the northern Persian Gulf into northern and eastern Syria. Smith said 47 total Tomahawks were used along with around 200 total munitions from all aircraft. Raytheon [RTN] develops the Tomahawk.

Mayville said the second wave of strikes came from F-22, F-15E, F-16, B-1 and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) against targets in northern Syria, including ISIL headquarters, training camps, barracks and combat vehicles. The third and final wave consisted of F/A-18s from the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) in the northern Persian Gulf and regionally-based United States F-16s attacking targets in eastern Syria, Mayville said. Ninety-six percent of all delivered munitions were precision-guided, Mayville said.

The F-22 has a significant capability to attack surface targets, using on-board avionics for navigation and weapons delivery support. In the future, air-to-ground capability will be enhanced with the addition of an upgraded radar and up to eight Small Diameter Bombs (SDB). The F-22 will also carry two AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and two AIM-9 Sidewinders in the air-to-ground configuration. The AMRAAM, Sidewinder and SDB are developed by Raytheon.

The Air Force has 183 F-22s in its inventory at a unit cost of $143 million each. The F-22 is developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT].