Moseley stated that the Air Force is “within days” of announcing F-22 initial operational capability. Once that happens, Air Combat Command can deploy the fighter overseas. Moseley said he expects that to happen by early spring. His preferred first destination is the Pacific theater. The Chief said there’d be little value in deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan because there really is no role there now for an F-22. Taking the new fighter to the Pacific, he explained, would enable allies and the other services to get used to working with the F-22 and “seeing what it can do.”
Raytheon, a division of defense giant RTX, recently announced a multiyear deal with the Pentagon to increase annual production of the Air Force’s primary dogfighting missile by more than 50 percent from two years ago.
