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.