The Air Force’s premier fighter aircraft, along with more than 150 airmen from Langley AFB, Va., have traveled to Hill AFB, Utah, for the first deployment of an F/A-22 squadron. Air Combat Command sent Langley’s 27th Fighter Squadron, the initial operational F/A-22 Raptor unit, to Hill to test the unit’s ability to conduct operations in a “remote” environment. The 27th FS has deployed with pilots and maintainers, as well as intelligence and communications personnel. The goal: Determine whether ACC can declare IOC for the unit in December.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…