you just know damn well this is NOT the Air Forces idea...
Posted on 04/27/2012 3:39:43 PM PDT by Libloather
Reports: DOD deploys F-22 fighters near Iranian border
By Carlo Munoz - 04/27/12 04:00 PM ET
As tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran, the White House upped the ante this month by sending a squadron of advanced U.S. fighters to Iran's doorstep.
The Air Force has reportedly begun rotating a squadron of F-22 Raptors to Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. UAE is directly to the south of the Iranian coastline, separated by the Straits of Hormuz.
Aviation Week first reported the details of the Raptor deployments.
Air Force spokesman Capt. Phil Ventura would not confirm the Raptor was headed to Al Dhafra, but said the next-generation fighter jets were en route to a deployment somewhere in Southwest Asia.
“Such deployments strengthen military-to-military relationships, promote sovereign and regional security, improve combined tactical air operations and enhance interoperability of forces, equipment and procedures," he told Aviation Week on Thursday.
If true, the Raptor deployments are only the latest instance of what could be seen as a burgeoning military buildup in the Persian Gulf region.
The Navy has doubled the number of mine-hunting ships patrolling the Straits, which is the only entry point for military and commercial vessels heading for the Persian Gulf, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told reporters in March.
Service leaders have also begun outfitting U.S. destroyers and cruisers in the Persian Gulf fleet with powerful Gatling guns.The weapons are ideal for taking out the small, fast-moving patrol boats the Iranian navy commonly uses to patrol the Straits.
Aside from that buildup, House Republicans are crafting legislation to funnel DOD dollars into weapons and equipment that would be key in waging a military conflict against Iran.
“We are doing what we can to make sure [the United States] is protected … and that is what we are going to do,” House Armed Services Committee chief Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) told reporters during a March 21 briefing on Capitol Hill.
Last Wednesday, Tehran announced that a number of areas in the Persian Gulf would be off limits to U.S. warships in the region, and would treat any incursion into those waters as threat to Iran.
"We have warned [foreign naval forces] before that some areas in the Persian Gulf are considered by us as zones of threat and they should not stop in those areas," Major General Ataollah Salehi, commander of the Iranian Army, told the state-run Fars News Agency.
Tehran set off a seemingly dangerous game of one-upmanship with Washington and its allies when it threatened to take control of the Straits in January.
Weeks of diplomatic saber-rattling between the two countries eventually forced Iran to back off, but not before it banned U.S. Navy warships from entering the waterway.
I will not be surprised at anything that happens between now an the election. I expect Soetoro to do something desperate and dangerous.
It’s go time - in an election year? The Muslim Brothahood must be jazzed.
No reason for F/22’s there. We could defeat their air defenses with much less. Sounds more like we’re about to give them one of our most advanced fighters to go along with the drone he gifted them with earlier
If he’s going to attack Iran, then he was an idiot for taking our troops out of Iraq.
No, one of them is there to crash-land in Iran so they can help the Russians and Chinese reverse engineer as much of it as possible.
It's about sharing the wealth with our enemies in the Moslem Brotherhood.
Wonder how long before one of these Raptors “crashes” where the Iranians can get their hands on it.
Now, with Barry's poll numbers looking bad, I am expecting him to attack either Iran or North Korea.... or, have one of his twisted foreign allies attack us so he can respond. I hope I am wrong. I think our window of opportunity to attack has long passed.
Why Hussein's supporters can't see how dangerous he is to them and their own families is mind boggling. I guess some people really can't see past skin color.
China and Russia really want this. They need to test countermeasures.
“No, one of them is there to crash-land in Iran so they can help the Russians and Chinese reverse engineer as much of it as possible.”
Fits nicely into Hussein’s plan for total distruction of this Country.
And similar to the drone, if 0bama disallows the complete destruction of a disabled or crashed F-22 in Iran, uhhhh.. Well.. The Congress will send him a nasty letter?
Right, and US media is describing exactly which arsenal we are deploying so the bad guys need not roll out the wrong countermeasures and air defenses.
you just know damn well this is NOT the Air Forces idea...
We can’t attack North Korea without China’s permission.
Why isn’t this information TS/code word?
This is exposing our best and highest tech for no good reason...unless of course he want it to threaten someone other than the Iranians...like the Israelis and keep them from taking the Iranians down.
Surprising how many of us are thinking the same thing.
I guess it means we really, really, don’t trust Obama.
Oh, gee, the same Raptors they said were horrible, useless and too expensive... go figure.
i fully expect a few of them to have ‘technical malfunctions’ and somehow end up landing, fully intact, on an iranian runway
the chinese won’t need them.. we shipped them the plans 2 years ago and they’ve already started rolling out fighters
but don’t worry... 35% of our aircraft are drones... /sarc
oh, sure... the drones can be co-opted by the chinese (either that or we gave them the drones... which is better??)
That was my thought as well. Are there AWACS and tankers deployed with them? Otherwise, that's a long way south from where the Israelis would be flying, and where the main targets are as well.
They don’t need AWACS.
Yep ...
Strategically, why deploy the F-22s?
The Iranians have no Air Threat to speak of.
Makes Hussein look tough? After all, Gaffemaster Biden says the rookie has "steel in his spine".
He might as well just give Iran and Russia a fully intact plane and be done with it.
We had 1/4 million troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add in sea power In the straits and that is enough to make a dictator STB.
So what does the boy king do?
He is clearing out all the troops. Maybe he decided pinpoint treatment won’t work for the cancer of Islam and it needs a radiation treatment. One can hope.
bfl
Probably the more correct take on this. But they could be there for additional reasons as well.
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Lefties scare the public that conservatives are dangerous, but the left are the ones who get us in uncontrolled warfare.
To do what?
SEAD perhaps? Lead the way in for the heavies, or fighter bombers. But the heavies could come from Diego
He should be Deploying them to Bomb the Missile sites in Venezuela and Cuba that Iran Is Building there to target The east Coast of the United States
The Iranians have no Air Threat to speak of.
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They do have advanced Ground to Air systems (Tor-M2s and maybe S300s) from Russia ... as the poster said - Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). This role is secondary for a F-22, but perhaps, in this case, necessary for a primary role.
Debka has more
http://www.debka.com/article/21955/
SEAD? Why put your premier, top-of-the-line, air superiority fighter into forward positions to do a secondary role when you have cruise missiles and stealth bombers to suppress the Ground-to-Air in prep for a nuclear reactor strike?
Iran isn’t about to attack out of their borders through the air.
Publicly deploying F-22s does nothing but alert the Iranians that we are preparing to strike.
The logic of this move escapes me.
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Only if you assume only the Iranians will be involved...
Maybe because any air attack will have to go through the Russian Navy stationed off the coast of Syria and their radar stations in the Syrian Golan and the Russian Naval facility at Tartus, Syria?
The Russians may have radar specs for the other planes but not the F-22. Using the others first, the Russians will simply notify the Iranians what is coming where, when.
This is assuming that the Russian Naval air elements (SU-35s et al) at Tartus do not engage the first wave. Russia is determined that Iran will not be another Libya ... which is why Russia has top-of-the-line air to air radar, air to ground missiles, and airframes stationed in the area manned by Russians.
Or maybe, as someone suggested, to give the Russians active Intel on F-22 capabilities?
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