Larry Lawson–the executive vice president and general manager of the F-22 program for Lockheed Martin–has offered some of the recent performance results of the Fifth Generation stealth fighter. During Operation Northern Edge in Alaska, he said, F-22s dominated air-to-air engagements, even though outnumbered four-to-one by opposing forces composed of F-15C and F-15E Eagles and F/A-18 Hornets. Lawson made his presentation at the Farnborough Air Show. Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver, 27th Fighter Squadron commander, added, “We have been able to show that the integration of the F-22 … can produce a team that is unmatched.” Gen. John Corley, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, had earlier disclosed by the F-22s posted an eye-watering 180-to-0 record against the opposition.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.