Safety First

In response to some very public comments made by two F-22 pilots on the safety of flying the fighter jet, the Office of the Secretary of Defense has directed the Air Force to take further precautions against the hypoxia-like incidents affecting the fleet.

In a Pentagon press conference today, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs George Little announced that OSD has instructed the Air Force expedite the installation of a backup, “auto” oxygen system on the entire F-22 fleet. The Raptor's existing on-board oxygen generation system requires a manual activation, and the backup system would presumably activate automatically, but Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby deferred questions about the new backup system to the Air Force.

Little also announced that F-22 flights will temporarily fly only short-duration flights and should remain close to potential landing locations at all times in case pilots encounter any hypoxia symptoms. This restriction is particularly relevant near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, an F-22 home base and a location where Raptors often fly long-range missions. F-22 aircraft will not be limited to a specific distance or time in flight, Kirby said, and the decision on how far, how long or at what altitude to fly will be left to operators. However, long-duration flights will be performed by other aircraft for now, Little said.

In addition to those two precautions, OSD has instructed the Air Force to submit a monthly progress report on the service's quest to discover a root cause of the F-22 fleet's oxygen generation issues.

Some F-22s are deployed in the Middle East, and Little said those airplanes will stay there and continue executing their missions. “We believe we can safely continue that deployment given the geography of the region,” he said.