The US has begun deploying its most advanced stealth jet fighter, the twin-engine F-22 Raptor, to a base in the United Arab Emirates. What this means is anyone's guess. An attack on Iran or Syria? To put pressure on Iran prior to the restarted nuke talks?
?The F-22 is unlike any other fighter in the world and our friends and potential adversaries know it,? an aviation industry executive told Aviation Week. ?When we deployed the F-22s to Guam and Japan, everybody in Asia and the Pacific paid attention.?
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120427/f22-raptor-fighter-deployed-iran-aviation-weekThe F16's and F18's are the dominate military aircraft in the world today. But when they face an F22 Raptor, even at 12 to one, 99 percent of the time they are slaughtered. The Raptors are extremely expensive compared to other aircraft. This is the reason that the military has decreased the number of Raptors on order compared to what they initially wanted.
Inside the War Games for U.S. Air Force Fighter Pilots
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/4311433