Grounded Stealth-Fighter Jocks Could Lose Clearance to Fly

[Feuer Frei!]

The U.S. Air Force’s most advanced stealth fighters have been grounded for so long that pilots of the F-22 Raptors are starting to run the risk of being disqualified from flying their assigned planes.
Air Force requires pilots to fly a certain number of sorties in their aircraft every month, in order to stay fresh. If they don’t fly for 210 days, the pilots lose their “currency,” as it’s known in military jargon. Then, they have to be retrained on their jets, nearly from scratch.
Ordinarily, that’s a problem for an individual pilot when he gets sick, goes on leave, or takes a desk job somewhere. But now, the Air Force is facing the possibility of it happening to hundreds of their very best fighter pilots. And no amount of time in a flight simulator can fix that; fighter jocks need to fly in real cockpits to stay qualified.
“Today’s simulator visuals are quite good, but nothing can truly replicate the physiological difficulties of long range visual pick-up of tactical aircraft or ground targets in the ‘real’ world,” Air Combat Command spokeswoman Capt. Jennifer Ferrau tells Danger Room.
The entire fleet of F-22 Raptors — the world’s most advanced dogfighters — has been grounded since May 3, after problems were discovered with the planes’ oxygen systems. So, too, is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet, which means that every stealth fighter in the U.S. inventory is currently out of commission.
The F-35s, at least, are expected to resume testing shortly. No one’s quite sure when the 165 Raptors (and their pilots) are coming back.


Instead of pumping in pure air, the F-22 was feeding its pilots lungloads of dangerous chemicals. “Toxins found in pilots’ blood include oil fumes, residue from burned polyalphaolefin (PAO) antifreeze, and, in one case, propane,” reports Air Force Times’ Dave Majumdar. 14 pilots suffered “hypoxia-like symptoms.”
Some are even blaming the oxygen system in the fatal crash of an F-22 in November.
All of which means that Raptor pilots are stuck on the ground until further notice.
“The guys are getting antsy,” Lt. Col. Jason Hinds, director of operations for the 27th Fighter Squadron, told the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, last month.
Time in the simulator doesn’t relieve the stir-craziness. For one thing, it doesn’t resolve the pilots’ currency issues, Ferrau notes in an e-mail. Unlike commercial pilots, Air Force fighter jocks can’t use simulated takeoffs and landings to keep them current.


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