This month, the U.S. Air Force will deploy over two dozens of F-22 stealth aircraft to a training exercise in the western Pacific.
The F-22 Raptor after refuelling from the KC-10 Extender off the Queensland coast.
25 F-22 Will Be Deployed for Operation Pacific 2021
In a recently published article in MSN News, approximately 25 F-22 Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, will be deployed to Guam and Tinian islands this month for Operation Pacific Iron 2021, according to Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii.
The F-22s are fifth-generation fighter planes that use stealth technology and link on-board sensor systems with off-board information systems to provide its pilots with a comprehensive picture of the fighting area. Another example is F-35 fighter jets from the United States.
According to Carl Schuster, a Hawaii-based defense analyst and former director of operations at US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, deploying a large number of F-22s for the exercise sends an immediate message to China at a time when relations are tense over Pacific flashpoints such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. He stated that most F-22 deployments include six to twelve planes, according to a published article in The Economic Times.
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Chinese and U.S. Airforce Fighter Jets
According to Schuster, the Chinese air force has approximately 20 to 24 operational fifth-generation fighters, but Beijing's capabilities are rapidly increasing. According to Air Force data, the U.S. Air Force has approximately 180 F-22s in its fleet although only about half of them are mission capable at any time owing to maintenance needs.
As a result, the United States will deploy roughly a quarter of its mission F-22s to the Pacific Iron exercise. F-22s are anticipated to be among the first weapons deployed in any war, charged with knocking down an adversary's air defenses, among other tasks, due to their ability to avoid radar detection, according to a published report in Yahoo News.
Peter Layton, a former Australian air force officer now an analyst with the Griffith Asia Institute, said that in the event of a severe crisis or conflict, the United States is actively rehearsing deployments. The United States is taking China very seriously, and it is strengthening its force posture and preparing its troops to be ready to get into position fast.
Operation Pacific Iron
According to a statement from Pacific Air Forces, ten F-15 Strike Eagle fighters from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho and two C-130J Hercules transport planes from Yokota Air Base in Japan will join the F-22s for Operation Pacific Iron to round out the air fleet for what the Air Force calls an Agile Combat Employment operation, also known as a combat dispersal operation.
Smaller, less developed airfields such as Tinian International Airport on the island of the Northern Marianas, Won Pat International Airport on Guam, or Northwest Field, a remote strip away from the major runways at Andersen Air Force Base, will be used to train for Pacific Iron. The exercise's lessons may be used to operate from smaller airports on islands in the western Pacific.
This would increase the number of targets that enemy missiles would have to destroy, giving the U.S. air force a greater chance of retaliating.
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