All 12 F-22A Raptors from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley AFB, Va., are now deployed to Kadena AB, Japan on the island of Okinawa. Two Raptors arrived from their stopover at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, on Feb. 16 and the other 10 over Feb. 17-18. The new stealthy fighters were about a week overdue for their Pacific region deployment, following a navigation software glitch that “was corrected” at Hickam. The Raptors left Hickam on Feb. 11, only to return when “multiple aircraft” developed the software problem. At Hickam, 13th Air Force commander, Lt. Gen. Loyd Utterback, called the problem a “minor issue,” but the service delayed the trip as a safety precaution.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…