Raptors from Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia, arrived Friday at Burlington International Airport for a training exercise with the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing.
“We are excited to take part in this integrated training opportunity with our fifth-gen partners from Virginia,”158th Operations Group Commander Col. Nathan Graber said in a press release. “Our units represent the tip of the sword in the high end fight, and these missions allow us to hone those skills that make us a more effective force against any potential adversary.”
Similar to F-35 fighter jets, F-22s can be 9 to 22 decibels louder than F-16s, the jets that the Vermont Air National Guard replaced in 2019, making them two to three times louder to the human ear, according to a neuroscience professor at the University of Arizona.
Facebook comments made on DVIDS — Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, the site used to publish Department of Defense-wide press releases — displayed the continued dismay of Vermonters regarding the National Guard’s use of F-35s in the Burlington area.
“As if the daily bombardment of the F-35s was not enough, now your friends, the F-22s, are coming to play war games in my very populated community,” Malina Rivera wrote.
“This is the second time in a month we have had to deal with additional aircraft interference with our lives,” Ann Goering commented. “This is not consistent with prior [Vermont Air National Guard] use of the airspace over our region. This was never brought up with the public in any presentation.”
Maj. Meghan Smith, a public affairs officer for the Vermont Guard, said the flight training program “requires that we train with other aircraft.”
“For years we’ve trained jointly with multiple different platforms, both locally and across the country and will continue to do so,” she said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article overstated how loud the F-22s are compared to F-16s. This article has been updated to include a comment from the Vermont Guard.
