When discussing modern air-to-air fighter aircraft, the U.S. Air Force’s F-22A Raptor is typically smothered with superlatives, yet to this day its pilots still don’t wear a helmet-mounted display — one of the modern standards for even lesser fighters. After being dropped from the original program requirements due to time, cost, and integration hurdles, the U.S. Air Force openly discussed plans to try and upgrade the jet with such a system back in 2013, but operational squadrons have never received them.
The War Zone has received an exclusive image that clearly shows a Raptor operational test pilot wearing the Thales Scorpion Helmet-Mounted Display (HMD) in 2014. The photograph was apparently taken at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, during the planned test program that was outlined the year before. However, the official results of this evaluation and any further fielding plans remain unknown.,,,MORE
