Raptor (Lockheed)
Air Traffic Control Developmental
Time Pressure; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure; Weather
I was called to work sector 5 and 6 D; with no delay; to assist the R-side CPC with a military emergency situation. A flight of 3 F22's had been manually handed off to us from Anchorage Approach as an [priority]; low-fuel situation diverting to ZZZ due to low weather at [original destination]; at FL200 descending. Shortly after I took sector 5/6D; Approach called with another manual handoff of Aircraft X; a single F22; also a minimum fuel aircraft at FL200 diverting to ZZZ due to low weather. I was informed that Approach was also having communication issues with Aircraft X; but that they had previously stated that they had all other fighter traffic in sight. After maybe a minute; we were able to regain communications with Aircraft X; when they confirmed that they had [the flight of 3] in sight. All 4 aircraft were in close proximity to each other; and were issued to follow each other on a visual approach to ZZZ. I manually coordinated the [priority] situation and aircraft/approach information with ZZZ Tower before we shipped all aircraft to Tower frequency. Due to the poor weather; the fighters had to divert to ZZZ. Without enough fuel for a standard diversion; this caused a lot of panic and confusion at Anchorage Approach; which subsequently led to a lot of confusion on our part during the transfer of the flight plan and aircraft information. It is my opinion that the fighters should have returned from the practice airspace earlier or carried extra fuel to provide for enough time to handle a diversion more safely. There was no traffic in the ZZZ area at the time of this event; but it is a very busy IFR and VFR traffic area and if there had been any traffic I don't believe we could have successfully separated the fighters from other aircraft due to their haste and lack of communications.  I believe that the R-side working sector 5/6R at the time of this event handled the situation as well as possible given the circumstances.
ZAN controller reported accepting handoffs on 4 F22's and had to issue low fuel diverts.