Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin executive VP and general manager of the F-22A program, today extolled progress on the Raptor. He was effusive over the program’s 2005 accomplishments—noting USAF’s declaration of IOC and that program officials had been able to capitalize on lessons learned from an exhaustive testing process. One such lesson helped improve the Raptor’s mean time between maintenance by 60 percent since IOT&E test results in early 2005.
The U.S. military is sending more fighter jets to the Middle East to step up its war with Iran, adding to what is already the largest buildup of airpower in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For now, the operation shows little sign of coming to a quick…