The F/A-22 Raptor on 
Aug. 29 demonstrated its air-to-ground capability, launching two Joint Direct Attack Munitions on the Utah Test and Training Range—the culminating slice of a mission scenario, not the whole pie. It was the first of a series of follow-on operational test and evaluation missions that will run through late fall, according to officials with the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, Nellis AFB, Nev. Each mission may include numerous sorties, all flown in “operationally realistic” scenarios with adversaries, aerial refueling, and ground control intercept, as well as the full maintenance effort needed to produce each sortie.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
