RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- F-22 Raptors assigned to the 90th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Łask Air Base, Poland are postured and ready to safeguard Alliance territory through Air Shielding and defend NATO’s eastern flank on a moment’s notice.
The Raptor has made vital contributions to the U.S.’s peacekeeping efforts around the world by deterring potential adversaries and enhancing lethality against all advanced air threats. It provides NATO a more permanent deterrence option through Air Shielding and ensures the stability and security of NATO’s airspace.
“The Air Force has relied on F-22 deployments to improve combined tactical air operations, enhance interoperability of forces and deter potential threats for the past 15 years,” said Lt. Col. Michael Kendall, 90th EFS commander. “Raptor capabilities allow us to provide air superiority and dominance, rapidly and at great distances. We came here to enhance NATO’s posture and increase warfighting capabilities along the Eastern Flank in support of our Allies and partners.”
The NATO Air Shielding mission is an enhanced posture that integrates Allied Air and Surface Based Air and Missile Defense and offers rapidly deployable options from the Baltic to the Black seas. However, this mission retains the flexibility to address any emerging threat in the region.
The F-22 will also support Agile Combat Employment operations and exercises throughout the region to validate new ways to deploy and maneuver assets during a crisis or conflict to operate in contested environments. The F-22 has the ability to fluidly move across the theater to seize, retain, and exploit an adversary, ultimately presenting layers of operational unpredictability to an adversary’s strategic decision making.
“The F-22 ensures a lethality that no other aircraft can provide,” said Kendall. “We are unwavering in our commitment to extended deterrence and ready to go whenever they need us.”
As the 90th EFS has officially taken over the mission at Łask Air Base, the F-15E Strike Eagles from the 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, U.K., have returned home.
The U.S.’s commitment to defending NATO territory is ironclad and the 90th EFS will continue to bolster NATO’s posture to defend our Allies and partners.