The Air Force’s F-22s are flying again, officials at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., and JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, told the Daily Report Wednesday. Both bases temporarily grounded their Raptor fleets last week after two Virginia-based pilots experienced hypoxia-like symptoms during a training sortie on Oct. 20. Alaska’s aircraft were up and flying again Monday. Officials there temporarily paused operations over the weekend as a precaution following the incident in Virginia, a base spokesman told the Daily Report. The restriction on Langley-Eustis’ aircraft was lifted by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday US East Coast time and the F-22s are once again flying the “same number of sorties as before the brief pause,” said Monica Miller Rodgers, a spokeswoman with the joint installation’s 633rd Air Base Wing. Raptor pilots are not operating under any new restrictions. However, “the commander continues to closely monitor operations,” said Miller Rodgers. The Air Force declined to release any additional information on the Oct. 20 incident, saying officials continue to analyze it.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.