F-22 Strikefighter Cell

With just 18x F-22 around it will be hard to equip more than half of the planned 10 AEF with 24 F-22 per squadron (the number of AEFs is of course a topic for discussions). There is talk about dropping to 18 per squadron, but even the Air Force doesn’t seem convinced about that idea.

Now, I wonder if maybe arranging F-22 in squadrons is not such a good idea anyway. Maybe the “cell” would be more flexible and basically settle for what is now often a “detachment” as standard minimum tactical deployment element. Whereby the “cell” would be a purely expeditionary formation, while non-deployed F-22 could be rounded-up in two big, CONUS based replacement wings, from which “cells” are drawn for frontline operations.

The next organisatorial level would then already be the AEF (or even joint theatre command). Of course this would need logistic adaptions, but it might be more flexible and provide a way to get around a two-tier AEF structure, a high-AEF with F-22, and a low-AEF without them.

A “cell” would be, say, 5 aircraft – provided availability is at least 80%, otherwise there would have to be 6 aircraft per “cell”.