The Air Force has decided not to send its F-22 demonstration team to wow the crowds at this month’s Paris air show due to more pressing demands on the Raptor fleet, a service spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. First Lt. Georganne Schultz, deputy chief of public affairs for 1st Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., home of the demo team, told the Daily Report that the service had tentatively planned to dispatch two F-22s to Le Bourget for the air show, which runs from June 15-21. “However, because of air expeditionary deployments and operational requirements, the Air Force has decided not to send the F-22 to participate,” she said. The Raptor fleet is busy, she said. Just last month, a contingent of 12 Raptors from Langley left for a four-month assignment at Kadena AB, Japan, as part of a normal rotation of US combat forces to the region. And a similar group of F-22s deployed around the same time from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, to Andersen AFB, Guam. F-22s have already participated in several overseas air shows: Toronto in 2007 and Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough last year.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.