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Raptors Down Under: Australia intends to press US lawmakers for the rights to acquire the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. So reports that country's Herald Sun, citing comments by Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. "I intend to pursue American politicians for access to the Raptor," said Fitzgibbon, who is planning to review the nation's air combat capability. US law currently bars export of the Lockheed Martin-built F-22. But Fitzgibbon said: "We are well-placed to talk to Democrats on the Hill about it, and I want it to be part of the mix." He is part of the new Labor Party-led government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that unseated John Howard's Liberal Party-headed coalition in the country's national election last November. The aforementioned review will re-examine the Howard government's plans to replace the Royal Australian Air Force's aging F-111s and F/A-18s with 24 new Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets and about 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. US lawmakers are already considering whether to allow USAF to procure more than the 183 F-22s currently on the books. A Congressional Research Service report last summer pitched the pros and cons of allowing foreign Raptor sales, principally to Japan.

From AF Daily Report 8 Jan O8

Getting Ready for the Raptor: The first four Air Force pilots picked to fly the F-22 without previous fighter experience embarked earlier this week on the initial leg of their two-year-plus training. The four pilots entered the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke AFB, Ariz., on Jan. 14 to start the five-week Raptor Lead-in course. It will put them in two-seat F-16s with an instructor pilot to familiarize them with flying a high-performance, high-G aircraft. Use of the F-16, which like the Raptor, employs fly-by-wire side-stick controls, is meant to ease the transition to the F-22. Upon completion of the course, the pilots will head to Tyndall AFB, Fla., and join the 43rd Fighter Squadron for hands-on training with actual F-22s. The four pilots were selected from a pool of eight candidates that had undergone undergraduate pilot training and taken the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals course. All previous F-22 pilots to date migrated to the F-22 after years in fighter cockpits. What these pilots do not know as they enter training is how large the Raptor fleet will be, since that still remains an issue in Fiscal 2009 funding deliberations. (USAF report by 2d Lt. Bryan Bouchard)

From AF Daily report 18 Jan 08

Coming home from today, three F-22's were taking off from McChord AFB. Wish I had my camera with me. This was my first look of these planes. Not sure where they are going, my guess maybe Alaska, they were trailing a KC-135.

Just watched the airshow clip on there.
Nice to see the USAF finally coming near to what the russians have been able to do for the last 10 years.. Still not there though!

Barry

In't there a law (in the US) that forbids the export of a new military hardware to other nations until a certain amount of months/years have passed?

I may be totally making this up but I have a feeling I've heard that somewhere....

It ALWAYS takes Congressional Approval. Sometimes by individual items sometimes a whole package. These are usually done as 'class' of item. Some are automatically embargoed for sale to foreign countries. A classic example were F-14 parts. There was an instance of a 'middle-man' buying surplus parts and routing them through another country before the sale to Iran. The end result was a total block on sales of those parts. Other items like radar are removed or substituted before an aircraft can be sold. The dealers in surplus items are liscensed. Original manufacturers like Boeing can make sales of approved items directly, including spares. That process is often done by treaty or cooperative manufacture.

Raptors are coming for this years RIAT at Fairford so us brits getto have a nose

It also appears that the Australian government is going to start pressing the US Congress very hard for the purchase of some F22's. While they are still in the mix to buy some Super Hornets and quite a few F35's, they also want the Raptor.

I guess time will tell what Congress will say about these exports.

lee100359 wrote:Coming home from today, three F-22's were taking off from McChord AFB. Wish I had my camera with me. This was my first look of these planes. Not sure where they are going, my guess maybe Alaska, they were trailing a KC-135.

Hopefully they'll be there for the McChord Air Show, July 19th & 20th. My fingers are crossed.

Paul