Raptor Weapons School Back In Action

The F-22 Raptor division of the U.S. Air Force's elite Weapons School is back up and running after last year's grounding, a service official said.

"Raptor has been back fully integrated at Weapons School since we returned to fly," said Col. Robert Garland, the school's commandant. "Four students in class 12A started this past Monday."

Classes at the school started Jan. 9 for all of the squadrons, whose students will graduate in June.

Known as the "Satan's Angel's," the 433rd Weapons Squadron runs classes for both the Raptor and F-15 Eagle, an arrangement that makes the unit somewhat of an oddity among the Weapons School's 17 squadrons. The 433rd also works closely and shares its Raptors with the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, which tests new hardware and develops new tactics, because only 187 production F-22s were built.

The Weapons School selects the best of the Air Force's instructors and molds them into weapon and tactics officers who become the service's tactical gurus.

The course runs for six months and the school runs two courses a year. About 80 students graduate per class.