Raptor delivered to US Air Force

The USAF’s F/A-22 Raptor.

Lockheed Martin has officially delivered the first production F/A-22 Raptor air dominance fighter to the US Air Force.

The formal acceptance documents for the aircraft were signed at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company facility in the US on October 23.

The aircraft, the 10th Raptor built, is a Production Representative Test Vehicle. It will be flown to the service’s flight test centre at Edwards Air Force Base in California to be readied to support the F/A-22 program’s Dedicated Initial Operational Test and Evaluation phase, scheduled to begin next year.

The Raptor will replace the ageing F-15 Eagle as America’s premier front-line fighter jet starting in 2005.

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