In Syria, Pentagon's
F-22 Fighter Plane Makes First Combat Appearance
Pilots Fly F-22 Over
Syria to Bomb Militant Islamic State Group Targets
By Julian E. Barnes in
the Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON—The
Pentagon's most advanced fighter plane made its combat debut in the U.S.-led
strikes on Syria, serving a crucial purpose for a sensitive mission that depended
on stealth.
Pilots flying the F-22
Raptor flew bombing runs over Syria to target the militant Islamic State group,
U.S. officials said.
Officials didn't say
what targets the F-22 struck, but said it was used later in the series of
strikes, which lasted several hours.
The plane is one of
the country's most expensive—the F-22 program has cost $67 billion and only 188
planes have been built—but U.S. policy makers have been reluctant to use it in
combat, in part because its high-end capabilities weren't needed for militant
threats that the U.S. has been focused on for the past decade.
"The ultimate
decision being made—that we are to use this aircraft against an adversary—is a
unique and momentous decision for the United States Air Force," said an
Air Force official.
Military officials
said the plane's ability to avoid detection by the advanced Syrian air defense
systems was one reason to use it. But its ability to fly higher and faster than
other fighters also allows it to drop its 1,000-pound guided bomb from a much
greater distance than older fighter planes, Air Force officials said.
According to the
F-22's unclassified specifications, it can drop a precision bomb from at least
15 miles away from its target.
"It has a unique
ability to approach adversaries in a way legacy aircraft can't," said the
Air Force official. "There are things the F-22 is uniquely suited to
address that the other fighters in our inventory can't."
The plane, built by
Lockheed Martin Corp., also has advanced sensors that allow it to have a
detailed view of a battlefield and to coordinate the attacks of other planes,
although it wasn't clear if these capabilities were used in the attacks
Tuesday.
F-22s have been
deployed to Asia, at a base in Japan, and to the Middle East, at a base in the
United Arab Emirates. But the U.S. has been reluctant to use them in actual
missions, in part because the U.S. military operations have mostly targeted
insurgent and terrorist groups, not states with sophisticated air defenses.
Until now, the F-22
has been used mainly as a deterrent against Iran as well as North Korea. In
2013, the U.S. made the planes part of a show of force against North Korea, but
only by putting them on display in Seoul.
Like many Air Force
programs, the F-22 suffered from cost overruns and other problems while in
development and afterward. In 2011, the U.S. grounded the F-22 for safety reasons, but later lifted the restriction.
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