Raptors take part in hurricane exercise

  • Published
  • Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  Two F-22 Raptors and a KC-135 based out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam performed a short-notice four-day deployment to Wake Island June 21.

"The deployment exercise not only tested our ability to rapidly respond to a crisis, it was also an impressive demonstration of the expeditionary capabilities of our fifth-generation aircraft," said Maj. Gen. Russell Handy, Pacific Air Forces chief of staff.

Wake Island lies approximately 2,300 miles west of Hawaii, and the short deployment confirmed it as a viable location for Hawaii-based aircraft relocation in the event of a contingency or crisis, such as a hurricane, tsunami warning or other situation requiring combat aircraft. Twenty-nine total force aircrew, operations and maintenance Airmen from the 154th Wing and the 15th Wing performed this rapid deployment and redeployment exercise with F-22s assigned to the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing.

"This was a very successful deployment for our Raptors, exercising our total force resilience and readiness here in the Pacific," said Lt. Col. Mark E. Ladtkow , 199th Fighter Squadron commander. "It demonstrated that if necessary, with little advance notice we can rapidly deploy to Wake Island, which has the necessary infrastructure in place to support our aircraft and operations."

While at Wake Island, the Airmen conducted a barrier certification to ensure the gear is capable of handling F-22 landings, and also held fire response and maintenance training with the local contractors. In addition to validating Wake Island's utility as a contingency location, the local training also supported the island's designation as a divert location for JBPH-H aircraft.

The aircraft arrived at Wake Island June 21, and returned to Hawaii June 24.