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F-22A Raptors taxi away from the runway at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, April 20, 2024.

F-22A Raptors taxi away from the runway at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, April 20, 2024. (Cedrique Oldaker/U.S. Air Force)

A $350 million stealth fighter rolled away from its parking spot this week on an Okinawa flight line, an Air Force spokesman said.

The F-22 Raptor recently assigned to Kadena Air Base rolled off the paved apron after it was towed into a parking space around 4:15 p.m. Monday, said Tech. Sgt. Micaiah Anthony, spokesman for the 18th Wing.

“There were no injuries resulting from the incident and efforts are underway to move the aircraft back onto the tarmac,” he told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday.

Anthony was unable to confirm whether the aircraft was damaged.

Raptors from the 199th and 19th Fighter Squadrons at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam arrived at Kadena on March 28 to join other fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, including F-35A Lightning IIs, already deployed there, the Air Force announced April 5.

Last month, an F-22 was damaged when its nose gear collapsed while the fighter was being towed on Kadena’s flight line.

A similar incident on Dec. 1 damaged a Marine F-35B Lightning II being towed on the Kadena flight line when the forward landing gear malfunctioned.

The Defense Department in December 2022 unveiled a two-year plan to rotate fighter squadrons through Kadena — a key fighter and air transport hub in the Western Pacific — and retire or reassign two squadrons of aging F-15C/Ds stationed there for decades.

The Air Force has yet to announce a permanent replacement for the F-15s.

“A thorough investigation will be conducted into the mishap,” Anthony said.

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Jonathan Snyder is a reporter at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. Most of his career was spent as an aerial combat photojournalist with the 3rd Combat Camera Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. He is also a Syracuse Military Photojournalism Program and Eddie Adams Workshop alumnus.

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