The Air Force has recently began training for so-called “Rapid Raptor” deployments-plans to move a small unit of their deadliest fighters to any dangerous area very quickly. While I might have heard the Rapid Raptor name, until recently it wasn’t in my mind.
That is, except when I made a scenario where just that occurs. Taking place during the 2013 Syrian chemical weapons crisis, immediate action is necessary to destroy a group of the Assad regime’s L-39s before they can be modified for chemical spraying and dispersed. Because there isn’t time to deploy a full package into what remains a heavy air defense system despite its age and obsolescence, a small group of planes will have to do the job all by themselves-these planes being the F-22 Raptors. I released the scenario and gave it the joking name “Operation Square Peg”, as it involved the air-superiority F-22s in a ground attack role.
After Square Peg’s release, I moved on to other scenarios, and didn’t seem to pay it much attention-until there was talk in the chat about making a Rapid Raptor scenario. The discussion of what circumstances would merit a small group of those planes (as opposed to either non-intervention or a larger deployment) was ongoing, and without solid answers.
At some point, I suddenly realized that a Rapid Raptor scenario had already been made-and that I’d made it. Square Peg fit the criteria for such a deployment, and while it was not exactly the same (ten fighters, as opposed to multiples of four), it was still a good impression.
Quite interesting.