The Air Force’s most beloved fighter jet missed out on the last ten years’ worth of warfare. Now that the United Nations has approved a no-fly zone in Libya, the service is indicating the F-22 Raptor will get its first taste of combat.
Speaking at a Senate budget hearing yesterday, Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force’s chief of staff, said that the first phase of a campaign against Moammar Gadhafi’s aircraft would attack Libyan radar sites. That’s just as airmen with no-fly experience predicted to Danger Room. Taking down the radar sites, which direct Libyan air defenses, will require the use of radar-evading stealth jets. Enter the F-22 Raptor, Norton said, according to The Hill’s John Bennett.
Last week, retired Maj. Gen. Irv Halter, who once ran the U.S. no-fly zone over northern Iraq, told Danger Room he doubted the “high-end” Raptors would be necessary for a Libya campaign, largely due to the unsophistication of Libyan air defenses. “I wouldn’t deploy F-22s unless there was a political reason,” Halter said. “They’d be absolutely great at it, but their stealth capability isn’t really part of the issue. This airspace you’re gonna be able to get into easily.”
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