Lockheed's
F-22 Raptor
is the most advanced fighter in the world with its stealth capabilities,
advanced radar, state of the art weapons systems and ultra-efficient turbofans
which allow the F-22 to 'supercruise' at supersonic speeds without an
afterburner at Mach 1.58 and has a top speed of Mach 2+ thanks to its twin Pratt
& Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines.
But while the simulated war games were a somewhat easy feat for the Raptor,
something more mundane was able to cripple six aircraft on a 12 to 15 hours
flight from Hawaii to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The U.S. Air Force's
mighty Raptor was felled by the International Date Line (IDL).
When the group of Raptors crossed over the IDL, all of their computer systems
crashed. Everything from fuel subsystems, to navigation and partial
communications were completely taken offline. Numerous attempts were made to
"reboot" the systems to no avail. Luckily for the Raptors, there were no weather
issues that day so visibility was not a problem. Also, the Raptors had their
refueling tankers as guide dogs to "carry" them back to safety. "They needed
help. Had they gotten separated from their tankers or had the weather been bad,
they had no attitude reference. They had no communications or navigation," said
Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. "They would have turned around and
probably could have found the Hawaiian Islands. But if the weather had been bad
on approach, there could have been real trouble."