US Air Force F-22 Raptors will join US F-35 Lightning II fighter jets during the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in July. They are part of the Air Combat Command (ACC) F-22 Raport demo team. According to a posting on the team’s Facebook on Tuesday 23 February, the team will be present in July at Fairford.

The F-22 will join the Lockheed Martin F-35’s announced earlier. The presence of both fifth generation fighter aircraft can without a doubt be regarded as a show of force of advanced Western military firepower. The F-22 has been on display at Fairford before, but never alongside its smaller and newer Lockheed Martin F-35 stablemate.

Dutch airshow

The F-35 should see it’s UK air show debut at Fairford this year, after a ditched attempt in 2014. However, the type’s first ever airshow appearance outside the US should take place at Leeuwarden airbase in the Netherlands in June. A Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A will cross the Atlantic this spring for what the Dutch call ‘perception flights’, plus the appearance at Leeuwarden.

The F-22 was a rare sight in Europe for many years. That ended with the deployment of four jets to Germany in 2015 as a show of force to Russia.

2016 Airheadsfly.com editor Elmer van Hest
Featured image: An F-22 Raptor heads for the skies. (Image © Airman 1st Class Amanda Morris / USAF)