The Washington Times is reporting that the US has deployed its advanced F-22 fighters to Okinawa.GINOWAN, Japan - A deployment to Okinawa by the U.S. Air Force's newest fighter jets presages plans to rapidly boost forces in the Pacific region in event of a crisis over North Korean nuclear weapons or a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
On Feb. 17, the first of a dozen F-22 Raptor fighter jets, manufactured by Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, completed a long-planned flight to the U.S. Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa from Langley Air Force Base in southeast Virginia. It was the first overseas deployment for the type since its 2005 entry into service.
The Raptors represent a sweeping modernization of U.S. forces in the Pacific, including new coastal warships, ballistic missile defenses, C-17 airlifters and wheeled armored vehicles for ground forces.
Over the next five years, the Air Force will permanently station three F-22 squadrons of about 20 jets apiece in the region: two in Alaska and one in Hawaii. Europe, once a bastion of U.S. air power, isn't slated to receive any Raptors.
[Taiwan] [Japan] [F-22] [China]
4 comments:
F-22 Blue Team vs Red Team in Alaska Red Flag achieved 254 : 2 Kill Ratio and the 2 losses on the F-22 team was F-15s. I just had interview with Lockheed Martin two days ago, see what would happen next.
Keng
F-22 or any new fighters has their achilles' heel. I hope we did a lot of work at protecting its computer functionalities. F-22 can't fly at all if its computer is out.
Arty - you mean like this?
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003321.html#comments
That's just part of it. When raptor's navigation system failed, it can still fly normally. However, for advance fly by wire airplanes, they also require a computer to help pilot control the normal flys because the bodies of the stealth design is not stable. For example, when F-117 was in development, it literally lost a tail wing during one fly, and the pilot didn't even know it until the F-16 chase plane told him. It is because the fly operation computer immediately adjusted for the lost of a tail wing without notice of the test pilot. Same thing for our stealth bombers, B-2, the design is impossible until we have computers can help pilot stablize the control. However, I can tell you, the most impressive part of B-2 is not its body design, but its engine. It is so freaking quite.
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