Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft fly behind a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, not shown, during Red Flag-Alaska 13-3 over the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex Aug. 14, 2013. Senior Airman Zachary Perras/U.S. Air Force
ABC News: US Uses $400M F-22 Raptor Jets in Syria Despite Not Needing Them
For years they were the highly-advanced aircraft without a mission, decried by critics as having been built from more than $80 billion in taxpayer dollars for an enemy that doesn’t exist. But now, more than a decade after the first jets went operational, the next-generation stealth F-22 Raptors are... still looking for that enemy, and settling for bombing militants in Syria and Iraq in the meantime.
The jets, some of the most sophisticated and priciest stealth fighter planes ever built, are not sitting out the Air Force’s latest aerial operations in Iraq and Syria, as they did in previous campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Since their maiden mission in September 2014, F-22s have been “operating regularly” in the anti-ISIS campaign and have dropped more than 200 bombs on targets in 150 sorties, according to the Air Force.
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WNU Editor: Overkill .... unless a shooting war begins between Russian and NATO/Turkish/U.S. planes over Syria.
8 comments:
I wonder if the Russians were glad to have them within their operational theater to get as much intel on them as possible, or do they already know everything they need to know about them???
Considering the 'Proving Grounds' aspect of such military operations as that in Syria, the F-22 activity in this conflict is perfectly warranted. Even necessary for its role - Which is one of an absolutely supreme Aircraft. An Aircraft cannot be absolutely supreme if those pilots who fly it are not also.
A 1940 stuka would be adequate in syria.
Unless you're President Trump, then they are there to kick some ass if we have to. I love the Russians, don't ya know? I have a Russian wife don't ya know?
Unless you're President Trump, then they are there to kick some ass if we have to. I love the Russians, don't ya know? I have a Russian wife don't ya know?
The deployment of a combat platform serves no operational necessity.
Okay then!
"A 1940 stuka would be adequate in Syria."
That actually makes sense.
Skyraider?
Cost, performance, Fear.
The F-22 Raptor is an air superiority platform, not a bomber, or a strike aircraft, operating in a permissive envelope in which there are no air challenges from the "claimed" target .
For the operating costs of one F-22, the US could have deployed 2 B-1's, or 5 Strike Eagles, or 8 Falcons, or 18 A-10's.
With the F-22's operating on the periphery of Russia's ELINT, every sortie has probably been a huge boon to Russian Military Intelligence.
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