requirement ahead of declaration of Initial
Operational Capability (IOC) to tick o the
enduring concerns. By this time, Raptors
were still ying from Edwards, the 422nd
TES was ying at Nellis, a full squadron of
Raptors was based at Tyndall for pilot and
maintainer training and the 1st Fighter
Wing was standing up at Langley. In fact,
the 27th FS received the 50th Raptor (serial
03-4051) on September 28, 2005.
FOT&E got under way on August 29,
2005, and included a number of multi-
role mission scenarios that involved
employment of the full range of Raptorweaponry. It was deemed successful,
with IOC being declared on December
15 by the 27th FS. The USAF was quick
to get the Raptors out on the road. The
27th sent a dozen jets to Elmendorf in
May 2006 for Exercise ‘Northern Edge’
and a full complement of aircraft for sister
unit the 94th FS ‘Hat in the Ring’, which
started receiving jets in March 2006, led
to FOC being declared for the 1st FW on
December 12, 2007.
The 90th FS began receiving Raptors in
August 2007 as the F-22 spread its wings to
Alaska, under the 3rd Wing. The 525th FS,also at Elmendorf, followed as it stood up
on October 29, 2007. In November 2007,
F-22s of the 90th FS performed their rst
NORAD interception of two Russian Tu-
95MS ‘Bear-H’ bombers.
The swift and somewhat unexpected
retirement of the F-117A Nighthawk in
early 2007 was a bitter blow for the 49th
FW at Holloman. However, justi cation
for the Nighthawk’s retirement was the
impending arrival of F-22s at the New
Mexico base. The rst pair of F-22s with
‘HO’ tail codes arrived here in June 2008 to
join the 7th FS ‘Screamin’ Demons’ as theSquadron Location Aircraft Wing/Group Command Tail code
19th FS (ASSOC) JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii F-22A 15th Wing/OG PA C A F HH
27th FS JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia F-22A 1st FW/OG ACC FF
31st TES (see Note 1) Edwards AFB, California F-22A 53rd Wing/53rd TEG ACC ED
43rd FS (FTU) Tyndall AFB, Florida F-22A 325th FW/OG ACC TY
90th FS JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska F-22A 3rd Wing/OG PA C A F AK
95th FS Tyndall AFB, Florida F-22A 325th FW/OG ACC TY
94th FS JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia F-22A 1st FW/OG ACC FF
411th FLTS Edwards AFB, California F-22A 412th TW/OG AFMC ED
422nd TES Nellis AFB, Nevada F-22A 53rd Wing/53rd TEG ACC OT
433rd WPS (see Note 1) Nellis AFB, Nevada F-22A 57th Wing/USAFWS ACC WA
525th FS JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska F-22A 3rd Wing/OG PA C A F AK
Air National Guard units
149th FS (see Note 2) JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia F-22A 192nd FW/OG ACC FF
199th FS JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii F-22A 154th Wing/OG PA C A F HH
Air Force Reserve Command units
301st FS (see Note 2) Tyndall AFB, Florida F-22A 301st FW/44th FG ACC TY
302nd FS (see Note 2) JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska F-22A 477th FG PA C A F AK
706th FS (see Note 2) Nellis AFB, Nevada F-22A 926th Wing/OG ACC WA
1 Squadron utilises aircraft assigned to host wing.
2 Associate squadron utilises aircraft assigned to host wing.RAPTOR UNITS
Below: An F-22
of the 422nd TES
‘Green Bats’ on
short nals to
runway 21 right
at Nellis.
Jamie Hunter
Top left to right:
Col Frank Gorenc
addresses
the crowd at
Marietta during
the roll-out of
the 1st FW’s
rst operational
Raptor. Col
Gorenc was
the wing
commander
at that time.
Lockheed Martin
Lt Col James
Hecker,
commander of
the 27th Fighter
Squadron,
delivers the
rst operational
F-22A Raptor to
Langley on May
12, 2005. USAF/
TSgt Ben Bloker(^34) RAPTOR
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