USA — Air Force Announces F‑22 Fleet Consolidation

The Depart­ment of the Air Force announced today its actions to con­sol­i­date the F‑22 fleet. The sec­re­tary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Air Force deter­mined the most effec­tive bas­ing for the F‑22. This requires redis­trib­ut­ing air­craft from one F‑22 squadron to units at four F‑22 bases. A sec­ond squadron will be relo­cat­ed to an exist­ing F‑22 base. 

The affect­ed bases are:
Hol­lo­man Air Force Base, N.M.: Deac­ti­vate one squadron of F‑22s and dis­perse that squadron’s air­craft to oth­er F‑22 units. Relo­cate the remain­ing squadron to Tyn­dall Air Force Base, Fla.
Elmen­dorf Air Force Base, Alas­ka — receive six addi­tion­al air­craft
Lan­g­ley Air Force Base, Va. — receive six addi­tion­al air­craft
Nel­lis Air Force Base, Nev. — receive two addi­tion­al air­craft
Tyn­dall Air Force Base, Fla. — receive one addi­tion­al squadron 

“This plan max­i­mizes com­bat air­craft and squadrons avail­able for con­tin­gen­cies,” said Kath­leen Fer­gu­son, deputy assis­tant sec­re­tary for instal­la­tions. “By con­sol­i­dat­ing air­craft at exist­ing bases, F‑22 oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty is enhanced.” 

Teams sur­veyed four F‑22 bases, eval­u­at­ing them for fea­si­bil­i­ty, tim­ing, cost, and plan­ning pur­pos­es to accept addi­tion­al F‑22 air­craft. The sec­re­tary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Air Force care­ful­ly con­sid­ered the site sur­vey results and mil­i­tary judg­ment fac­tors in mak­ing these bas­ing deter­mi­na­tions. These actions will be final­ized sub­ject to com­ple­tion of appro­pri­ate envi­ron­men­tal analysis. 

The F‑22 Rap­tor com­bines stealth, super­cruise, maneu­ver­abil­i­ty, and inte­grat­ed avion­ics, cou­pled with improved sup­port­a­bil­i­ty, and rep­re­sents an expo­nen­tial leap in warfight­ing capabilities. 

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact the Sec­re­tary of the Air Force Pub­lic Affairs Office at 703–695-0640.

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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