F-22s from JB Langley-Eustis, Va., recently relocated to the Georgia Air National Guard’s Combat Readiness Training Center in Savannah to continue training during runway renovations at Langley. Workers began a $2.2 million project “focused on replacing the worst runway slabs, cleaning and resealing joints, pouring concrete to repair a taxiway intersection, and restriping,” Langley spokesman 1st. Lt. John Cooper told the Daily Report on Aug. 15. Before Langley’s 10,000-foot runway closed on July 27, Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing departed for Savannah, he said. There are currently 26 F-22s in Savannah, he said. Langley’s runway is scheduled to reopen to air traffic on Aug. 26, said Cooper. In addition to contractors, Langley engineers and “various units on base are also heavily involved in the [runway] project,” he noted. Another 12 of Langley’s F-22s left the base late last month on a deployment to Kadena AB, Japan, as part of a normal rotation of US combat assets to the Pacific.
The Air Force displayed all the firepower it has amassed on Okinawa in an unusually diverse show of force this week. IIn a May 6 “Elephant Walk,” Kadena Air Base showcased 24 F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, eight F-15E Strike Eagles; two U.S. Army Patriot anti-missile batteries near the runway; and…