Wednesday, March 30, 2022

F-22s and the boneyard

The Air Force plans to retire nearly three dozen of Tyndall Air Force Base’s F-22 fighter jets in fiscal 2023, ending plans to move them to Virginia that have been on hold for more than three years. The Raptors have been flying out of Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., since a hurricane destroyed Tyndall AFB, Fla., in October 2018. Officials want to divest 33 of the service’s oldest F-22s and use that money to research cutting-edge combat jet designs under the “Next-Generation Air Dominance” program. If Congress approves the idea, it would send all but three Block 20 Raptors to the “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Ariz., and shrink the overall fleet from 186 to 153 fighters. (Source: DefenseNews via Yahoo, 03/28/22)