Air Force and industry 
officials challenged those within the Pentagon who would seek to cut the numbers of F/A-22 Raptors. At several venues at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, officials maintained the new stealthy fighter is crucial to continued US air dominance. Maj. Gen. Richard Lewis, the Raptor program executive officer, said the fighter’s advanced capabilities and sophisticated weapons are crucial in the face of known future threats. “I think we’ve undersold the airplane in the past,” Lewis said at the conference.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...