Libya and the F-22

Now that the situation is Libya has fully unfolded, it seems to operating on a much larger scale than I originally anticipated.  Now that the AC-130s, B-1Bs and A-10s have moved in, the range of hardware spans the entire arsenal, and is even more impressive given the lack of a Carrier Battle Group.  The NFZ enforcement is quite an array of F-16s, Tornadoes, Typhoons, Mirages and Rafales. Finally the UAE's Block 60 F-16s have joined in. The DOD has claimed about 200 US aircraft are involved.  Most of these are probably just support - tankers, electronic warfare, etc, but it is a number much higher than the 50 originally envisioned and the 15 USAF planes used on the first day.  Of course the only thing missing is the F-22.  As others have argued, I see this as the best opportunity to combat test the Raptor.  There are plenty of targets in a combat rich environment, but not a serious threat.  It would at least present the chance to show any flaws in the F-22 systems and a chance to test the JDAM capabilities.  Obviously the 5th gen capability is not needed in this situation, but there will be few times where it is needed beyond pure defense.  Given the wear from airtime on the 4th gen aircraft, it may be worthwhile for a Raptor deployment to absorb some of the stress, and it can fly with less worry about ground threats.  There have been ridiculous articles [1] about the B-2 flying without F-22 escorts, although this is pure fantasy, there has never been any such design in battle plans. Now they are blaming stateside basing, although the conflict is several weeks old and there was several weeks of delay before that where an F-22 detachment could have been prepped to deploy to Aviano.  In all fairness, the one unit I thought would go in first, the 493rd, has not joined in the fight but I don't see any articles complaining about the lack of F-15Cs in the coalition force.  There just doesn't seem to be any need for an air-superiority only fighter, and given that the F-22 has slightly better (than none) ground attack capability, it seems more usable than the Albino Eagle.  I can only hope that the Raptor is eventually deployed to enforce a continuing NFZ.

Some deployment discussions:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056194800&page=3
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?p=1722742


[1]  The article, by Fox News wasted an opportunity to present the politics involved in military decision making (and a chance to attack Obama, although I think it would have been a bigger attack on Gates).  Instead their poorly written article only supports the Obama/Gates propaganda.