Free Republic

A report has emerged that major Russian naval maneuvers were underway in the Pacific when U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor stealth fighters were scrambled from their base in Hawaii over the weekend, an incident you can read more about in The War Zone’s initial reporting. The Raptors were supposedly launched to investigate unspecified Russian long-range aircraft, part of a group of naval vessels and aircraft that were participating in a large-scale exercise around 300 to 500 miles west of the Hawaiian islands. The incident came immediately ahead of today’s summit meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir...

The U.S. Air Force is assessing what damage more than a dozen F-22 Raptor fighters suffered when Tyndall Air Force Base sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. Up to $2 billion in fighter jets were trapped on the ground because of maintenance issues and forced to ride out the Category 4 hurricane. Photographs show the hangars where F-22s were parked suffered severe damage. First, the good news: Although Tyndall Air Force Base took a hard hit from the hurricane, all 3,600 military personnel and their families living on the base were successfully evacuated beforehand. The 93 Air Force personnel...

MARIETTA, Ga., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin announced Tuesday it has won a new $5 billion order from the U.S. Air Force to build 60 more F-22 Raptor fighters. The total value of the company's contract with the USAF is now worth $7.3 billion. The aircraft will be built through 2011 "at a rate of 20 per year, with deliveries starting in late 2008," Lockheed Martin said in a statement. "The multi-year contract allows us to generate savings for the taxpayer and continue to deliver the most capable aircraft in the world to the men and women defending our...