The Commonwealth could become the new home of an F-22 Raptor training squadron, with the relocation from Florida bringing Virginia up to 800 jobs, and, of course, really, really cool airplanes. Governor Ralph Northam (D) announced the development in Hampton Roads days ago, but the final decision requires an environmental impact assessment and site survey that could take up to four years, the U.S. Air Force stated.
The Air Force’s F-22 flight and maintenance training squadron was grounded at Tyndall Air Force Base, 12 miles east of Panama City, Florida. After Hurricane Michael hit the East Coast in October 2018, the base was devastated, with the training unit temporarily moved to Eglin Air Force Base in the western part of Florida.
Prior to the damage caused by the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the U.S., Tyndall had the largest concentration of F-22s in the world.
The Pentagon is planning to rebuild the base, but to host the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, not the F-22 Raptor.
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
Virginia’s congressional delegation pushed hard for the squadron to be relocated to Langley-Eustis Air Force Base in Hampton, just a few miles east of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA) Langley Research Center. Built in 1916 when the Air Force was still under the branch of the U.S. Army, Langley is currently the oldest active Air Force base in the world.
To promote the squadron’s move to Virginia, lawmakers cited Hampton’s large amount of space to accommodate additional stealth aircraft, the area’s strong support for the U.S. military, and its close proximity to Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval base.
In addition to the F-22, Langley would host the T-38 Talon, the world’s first supersonic training jet. The estimated amount of jobs that are said to come to the Hampton area associated with the relocation of the squadron sits between 600 and 800.