[Hacker15e]

Not even close to being a good idea, unfortunately.

It's a combat zone. First and foremost, you don't have people and equipment over there that don't need to be there. You absolutely, positively, DO NOT do "training deployments" to combat zones.

The Raptors wouldn't be providing anything toward accomplishment, so it would be needless risk (of both personnel and expen$ive equipment) and a huge expenditure of treasure for zero gain (think of the Per Diem, combat zone tax exclusion, and hostile fire pay for everyone involved).

I can't think of a single reason this would be a good idea. There are only really three marginal reasons to do it:

- So F-22 drivers could log some "combat" sorties and get a few air medals.

- So F-22s could claim to have operated in a "combat" environment, even though there is very little actual threat to them and no operational mission for them to perform besides DCA.

- So Iran could be scared that there were a bunch of Raptors really close to their border (or both borders if they were at Balad and Bagram simultaneously).