December 3, 2009 at 11:17 am
Hello guys/girls…
I’ve been on this forum as a guest for quite some time now but I’ve finally decided to join. I really like the spirit on this forum and the knowledge possessed by some of you.
I have learned a lot about aviation on this forum… So Thank you all!
Moving on, I’ve got some (Classified) information about a recent small exercise between the USAF, USN and the Dutch Navy…
You might wonder why I want to share this info and the answer is simple.
I am an F-22 Raptor “fan”/Supporter and knowing what I know now, I think i should share this info with some people who know can use this info more effectively.
Here’s the story.
The Netherlands sent a (couple of) Naval Vessel(s) to the USA for the 9/11 ceremony in NYC this year, I dont know if it was before or after the ceremony, probably after but the USAF, USN and dutch Navy held a small exercise.
The dutch ship participating in the exercise was a “Zeven Provincien Class” Anti Air Frigate (LCF) (A friend of mine was stationed there).
The Situation was: a Nimitz class + the dutch LCF vs 2 US Destroyers, 1 Frigate 1 Submarine and 2 F-22 Raptors.
I’m gonna make this story short. Basically what happened was, the F-22’s mission was to establish air dominance and defend the fleet from the Hornets. They downed 20+ F-18’s from the Nimitz Class (I don’t know if they were Super Hornets or not) but what’s really astonishing is that they were detected by the dutch SMART-L and APAR 150 Miles out (Still not identified of course but they were classified as fast movers).
Near the end of the exercise, the pilots were ordered to engage the LCF because they weren’t really beating the OpFor.
They failed at destroying the LCF. Both raptors got shot down but a couple of gun hits were recorded from the flight lead.
A total of 4 ESSM’s were fired by the LCF, 2 of them were rendered useless but the other 2 did make simulated hits on the F-22’s.
I still don’t know how they established a lock on the Raptors. Thermal? Radar?
This is about everything I can tell you guys/girls right now.
So what do you think?
To be honest this scares me a little. If a dutch, naval based radar system can detect the F-22 then how about much more high powered land based radars?
IT–