The United States Air Force is sending more than two dozen F-22 stealth fighters to an exercise in the western Pacific this month.
Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii this week announced that 25 F-22s Raptors will deploy this month to Guam and Tinian islands.
It’s all part of Operation Pacific Iron 2021.
“We have never had this many Raptors deployed together in the Pacific Air Forces area of operations,” Gen. Ken Wilsbach, Pacific Air Forces commander, told CNN.
The F-22s are fifth-generation combat jets, the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft.
They incorporatie stealth technologies and connecting on-board sensor systems with off-board information systems to give their pilots a detailed view of the battle space.
They work hand in hand with the F-35 JSFs, which are operated by allies including Australia.
The Chinese air force has about 20 to 24 operational fifth-generation fighters, Schuster said, but he noted Beijing’s capabilities are improving at a rapid pace.
Operation Pacific Iron
For Operation Pacific Iron, 10 F-15 Strike Eagle fighters from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho and two C-130J Hercules transport planes from Yokota Air Base in Japan will join the F-22s to fill out the air fleet for what the Air Force calls an Agile Combat Employment operation, also referred to as a combat dispersal operation, according to a statement from Pacific Air Forces.
The exercise is in support of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, “which called on the military to be a more lethal, adaptive, and resilient force,” the statement said.
