Posted on 05/13/2006 5:27:26 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
May 13, 2006 (by Laura M. Colarusso) - The F-22A Raptor, the Air Force's premier fighter, is scheduled to deploy to the Pacific area of responsibility for the first time this June, officials said Wednesday.
Twelve Raptors from Langley Air Force Base, Va., will participate in Exercise Northern Edge 2006. It will be held June 5-16 in Alaska.
Approximately 5,000 active-duty and reserve component officials will participate, making Northern Edge the largest scheduled exercise to take place in Alaska this year, according to a media release from Pacific Air Forces. Service members from PacAF, Air Combat Command, U.S. Army Alaska, Marine Forces Pacific, Special Operations Command Pacific, and U.S. Pacific Fleet will take part in the exercise.
"Northern Edge is designed to prepare joint forces to respond to crises in the Asia Pacific region," Col. John Marselus, chief of Joint Exercise Division Alaskan Command, said in the release. "The exercise is intended to sharpen skills, to practice operations, techniques, and procedures, to improve command, control and communication relationships, and to develop interoperable plans and programs."
The Raptors will be based temporarily at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, which will be home to the next operational F-22A wing. The base is expected to receive 36 Raptors, the first of which is scheduled to arrive in fall 2007.
No photos!
Tyndall AFB here in Panama City, FL is the training base for Raptor pilots and it is a treat to the eyes when we see them flying over.
Maybe we'll get to see some of these in Fairbanks.
Pukin Dog once opined to me, when I asked him how his beloved F-14 would fare against it, said something to the effect of "My best defense would be to begin telling the Raptor pilot jokes from my repertoire of aviation humor, and hope that I could get him laughing so hard that he would tear up and be unable to see...then I might have a slight chance..."
We should get a lot of years service from the F22.Way ahead of the curve.Too bad we won't get many as initially planned.
You lucky dog, you.
Cool but I feel my tax money has gone to waste, when we use these things to launch expensive PGM's at terrorists, when a bat with nails in it would do the job with cheaper and even more precisely.
They've been doing a lot of training out here at Hill AFB, too. I live right under the landing pattern. It's been a real airshow lately. The F-16s are always around, but we've been having British Tornados, F-18s, EA-6s, and F-15s training out here.
That's not what the F-22 does. This is a tool to use when the Koreans and Chinese think that their pilots are good enough to start seeing some action with our boys.
Seriously, does anyone have any idea why the scheduled F-22 flyover at Barksdale was scrubbed?
The Barksdale show was great, but the fellow I attended the show with (my Bro-in-law) was on the Raptor Test team at Edwards AFB, and he was quite disappointed that we didn't get to see "his" aircraft.
I really wish that the US Navy would consider a naval version of the F-22. I am not a big fan of the F/A-18.
It is effective. All of the bombs hit the ground.
/johnny
The house I used to own in Panama City (before the AF moved me to CA,) was less than 2 miles from the runways at Tyndall. I saw them take off and land all the time.
Of course, I worked less than 1000 feet away from their hangar, so I had more than my fill of the F-22!
Yeah, but how would the F/A-18E/F fair against the latest Su-30 in Chicom hands or even the F-15 if Saudi Arabia went radical all the way?
Sure, our aviators are better trained and fly more hours, but they deserve the best.
I do not believe that the F/A-18 can dominate air space like the F-22 can. That doesn't seem important right now because we are fighting an insurgency. But things can change. Iran, for instance, has a lot of money and their pilots are not horrible, like Libyans. I saw a recent article that indicated that they still had dozens of F-14s they had managed to keep operational. What if they were able to buy Su-30s from Russia?
The AF will carry the heavy end of that package. We always do. And the Navy is darned helpful.
If you want air power, send zoomies.
I just read a book by General Horner about the Saudi princes that fly aeroplanes. I'm concerned enough to put them on the top of the list... but they don't fly well. Even in the Eagle.
F-18 has a role. F-22 has a role. B-52 has a role. Put the right parts in the right places, and we win.
That's why the Generals get the big $$s.
/johnny
I missed the obvious.... Sorry.
If an F-18 goes up against a Suckhoi, someone has screwed the pooch. And American missles will probably win the day.
Modern Air Generals don't treat B-52s or F-18s like air-superiority fighters. They use them as appropriate.
There are thousands of pages of doctrine that describe how to use air power. I've got a couple of feet of bookshelf used just for that topic.
/johnny
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