Air Combat Command plans to send 12 F-22As and more than 250 airmen to the Japanese island of Okinawa in February, a deployment welcomed by US Pacific Air Forces, which is slated to get its own Raptors. However, the news fell flat with Okinawa officials, reports Stars and Stripes. Island leaders have been pushing for less aircraft training flights from the USAF F-15s already stationed there. The locals seem to be at odds with Japan defense officials, who plan to have the Japan Air Self Defense Force train with the F-22s.
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…