Active duty airmen and Hawaii Air National Guardsmen assigned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam last week broke ground on a maintenance hangar and operations facility for the base’s new F-22s. Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie (D) and additional guests attended the event, which ceremoniously commenced construction of the new $37.1 million, 77,500-square-foot complex, reported the Honolulu Star Advertiser. The Hawaii Air Guard’s 154th Wing’s at Pearl Harbor-Hickam is establishing a force of 20 F-22s that its 199th Fighter Squadron will operate together with the active duty 19th FS under an active association. The base’s first two F-22s arrived last July. According to the Star Advertiser, seven F-22s are now at Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The ongoing grounding of the F-22 fleet already has delayed the arrival of additional aircraft from the US mainland.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.