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Posted on 04/27/2012 3:39:43 PM PDT by Libloather
Reports: DOD deploys F-22 fighters near Iranian border
By Carlo Munoz - 04/27/12 04:00 PM ET
As tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran, the White House upped the ante this month by sending a squadron of advanced U.S. fighters to Iran's doorstep.
The Air Force has reportedly begun rotating a squadron of F-22 Raptors to Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. UAE is directly to the south of the Iranian coastline, separated by the Straits of Hormuz.
Aviation Week first reported the details of the Raptor deployments.
Air Force spokesman Capt. Phil Ventura would not confirm the Raptor was headed to Al Dhafra, but said the next-generation fighter jets were en route to a deployment somewhere in Southwest Asia.
“Such deployments strengthen military-to-military relationships, promote sovereign and regional security, improve combined tactical air operations and enhance interoperability of forces, equipment and procedures," he told Aviation Week on Thursday.
If true, the Raptor deployments are only the latest instance of what could be seen as a burgeoning military buildup in the Persian Gulf region.
The Navy has doubled the number of mine-hunting ships patrolling the Straits, which is the only entry point for military and commercial vessels heading for the Persian Gulf, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told reporters in March.
Service leaders have also begun outfitting U.S. destroyers and cruisers in the Persian Gulf fleet with powerful Gatling guns.The weapons are ideal for taking out the small, fast-moving patrol boats the Iranian navy commonly uses to patrol the Straits.
Aside from that buildup, House Republicans are crafting legislation to funnel DOD dollars into weapons and equipment that would be key in waging a military conflict against Iran.
“We are doing what we can to make sure [the United States] is protected … and that is what we are going to do,” House Armed Services Committee chief Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) told reporters during a March 21 briefing on Capitol Hill.
Last Wednesday, Tehran announced that a number of areas in the Persian Gulf would be off limits to U.S. warships in the region, and would treat any incursion into those waters as threat to Iran.
"We have warned [foreign naval forces] before that some areas in the Persian Gulf are considered by us as zones of threat and they should not stop in those areas," Major General Ataollah Salehi, commander of the Iranian Army, told the state-run Fars News Agency.
Tehran set off a seemingly dangerous game of one-upmanship with Washington and its allies when it threatened to take control of the Straits in January.
Weeks of diplomatic saber-rattling between the two countries eventually forced Iran to back off, but not before it banned U.S. Navy warships from entering the waterway.
Oh, gee, the same Raptors they said were horrible, useless and too expensive... go figure.
i fully expect a few of them to have ‘technical malfunctions’ and somehow end up landing, fully intact, on an iranian runway
the chinese won’t need them.. we shipped them the plans 2 years ago and they’ve already started rolling out fighters
but don’t worry... 35% of our aircraft are drones... /sarc
oh, sure... the drones can be co-opted by the chinese (either that or we gave them the drones... which is better??)
That was my thought as well. Are there AWACS and tankers deployed with them? Otherwise, that's a long way south from where the Israelis would be flying, and where the main targets are as well.
They don’t need AWACS.
Yep ...
Strategically, why deploy the F-22s?
The Iranians have no Air Threat to speak of.
Makes Hussein look tough? After all, Gaffemaster Biden says the rookie has "steel in his spine".
He might as well just give Iran and Russia a fully intact plane and be done with it.
We had 1/4 million troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add in sea power In the straits and that is enough to make a dictator STB.
So what does the boy king do?
He is clearing out all the troops. Maybe he decided pinpoint treatment won’t work for the cancer of Islam and it needs a radiation treatment. One can hope.
Probably the more correct take on this. But they could be there for additional reasons as well.
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Lefties scare the public that conservatives are dangerous, but the left are the ones who get us in uncontrolled warfare.
To do what?
SEAD perhaps? Lead the way in for the heavies, or fighter bombers. But the heavies could come from Diego
He should be Deploying them to Bomb the Missile sites in Venezuela and Cuba that Iran Is Building there to target The east Coast of the United States
The Iranians have no Air Threat to speak of.
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They do have advanced Ground to Air systems (Tor-M2s and maybe S300s) from Russia ... as the poster said - Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). This role is secondary for a F-22, but perhaps, in this case, necessary for a primary role.
Debka has more
http://www.debka.com/article/21955/
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