Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James is making good on her threat to send the F-22 Raptor fighter jet to Europe for the first time in response to Russian aggression in the region.
Earlier this summer at the Paris Air Show, James said the U.S. may deploy a squadron of the fifth-generation stealth fighter jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp. to the continent in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from the Ukraine and support for separatists in the country.
During a press conference Monday at the Pentagon, the secretary announced that Raptors would, in fact, be heading to the region “very soon,” though as my colleague Richard Sisk reported at Military.com, she didn’t say how many will be going and where they will be based.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said the deployment would allow the F-22 pilots to interact and train jointly with the Eurofighter Typhoons, which have been flying air patrols over the Baltic states, Military.com reported.
Full article: U.S. Air Force to Dispatch F-22s to Europe (Defense Tech)
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