RF-22 Photos

[quellish]

Spotted at Edwards, the F-22 recon variant

 

[Hanse]

Hmmm. That looks like a window there at the rear. I wonder if it's an IR inhancer has well as an RF one. ???

 

[Berekhat]

AF-91-006 is an EMD airframe, and there is a movable optic behind the window, so it's just a test camera.

 

[quellish]

AF-91-006 is an EMD airframe, and there is a movable optic behind the window, so it's just a test camera.

Because of the placement I assume they're doing work with the arrestor hook, since I do not think it would be in the right place for weapons separation testing. When I noticed it I was on my way out and I could not find the appropriate person to interrogate

 

[F-14D]

Here's a shot of 06-111 in flight, the camera's quite visible.

 

[Hanse]

Just made me wonder as it's in the same location and seems to be the same configuration as the RCS enhancers they fly with. Maybe they use the same enclosure? ???

 

[fightingirish]

Seems so, that the USAF picked up the idea of a "RF-22".

The Air Force’s intelligence chief wants to use the stealthy, sensor-laden F-22 Raptor to collect information because spying isn’t about specific platforms.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula made his case for a different use of the fighter during a speech before the Air Force Association, a civilian aerospace group that promotes air power and national defense.
“If I was king for a day, I’d get rid of these traditional, industrial-age labels” — the Pentagon-wide aircraft designation system that puts the F in F-22 — and use each aircraft for a wider variety of missions, said Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Deptula was firm in lobbying for the F-22 as an ISR tool, saying the jet that officials have called a “Hoover vacuum cleaner of information” could “absolutely” replace intelligence planes such as the RC-135 Rivet Joint, but pointed out a technical challenge — getting the data off the fighter jet quickly.
Right now, the F-22 can share data only with other F-22s, using Intra-Flight Datalinks that can swap data undetected while over enemy territory. At last year’s Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment, though, an F-22 shared IFDL data with several older fighter jets using a modified Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Node data translator.
For Deptula, the F-22 would satisfy one of his biggest needs: a long-range, stealth spy plane that can survive the latest air defense systems being sold around the world by Russia and China. [...]

Source: Airforce Times Official: Fighters should be used for spying

 

[Steve Pace]

Here's a shot of 06-111 in flight, the camera's quite visible.

I believe that camera was to view missile firings - tail code OT means Operational Test.

 

[F-14D]

Seems so, that the USAF picked up the idea of a "RF-22".

The Air Force’s intelligence chief wants to use the stealthy, sensor-laden F-22 Raptor to collect information because spying isn’t about specific platforms.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula made his case for a different use of the fighter during a speech before the Air Force Association, a civilian aerospace group that promotes air power and national defense.
“If I was king for a day, I’d get rid of these traditional, industrial-age labels” — the Pentagon-wide aircraft designation system that puts the F in F-22 — and use each aircraft for a wider variety of missions, said Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Deptula was firm in lobbying for the F-22 as an ISR tool, saying the jet that officials have called a “Hoover vacuum cleaner of information” could “absolutely” replace intelligence planes such as the RC-135 Rivet Joint, but pointed out a technical challenge — getting the data off the fighter jet quickly.
Right now, the F-22 can share data only with other F-22s, using Intra-Flight Datalinks that can swap data undetected while over enemy territory. At last year’s Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment, though, an F-22 shared IFDL data with several older fighter jets using a modified Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Node data translator.
For Deptula, the F-22 would satisfy one of his biggest needs: a long-range, stealth spy plane that can survive the latest air defense systems being sold around the world by Russia and China. [...]

Source: Airforce Times Official: Fighters should be used for spying

Oh, swell. We're only getting 187 of them, and now they want to task it with even more stuff.