Gen. Paul V. Hester, Pacific Air Forces commander, today told reporters at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium that PACAF expects to receive its first F-22 in 2008 or 2009. The tiny size of the fleet (now only 183) means the command must start now to make careful plans for how it will use the Raptor—its missions, deployments, and so on. Because Pacific Air Forces will have so few, said Hester, “we will have to do a better job scheduling,” and “only put them in an AEF to go somewhere when it is absolutely necessary to have the skills and the talents and the technologies of the Raptor.” PACAF’s first Raptors will be based at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, where preparations for their arrival are already underway. “As you know, we wanted to have one squadron per AEF,” Hester said. “We don’t have that, and we’ve got to do a little better scheduling.”
The Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.