Gen. Paul Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces, plans to take possession next month of PACAF’s first F-22A Raptor. He told attendees at AFA’s Orlando symposium that he is going to Marietta, Ga., to pick up the first Elmendorf AFB, Alaska-bound F-22. The Air Force has now fully equipped the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., with Raptors, so the service’s top fighter will begin bedding down in the Pacific, starting in Alaska and then in Hawaii.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.