Eight more F-22 stealth fighters arrive in Japan

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan, Feb 18 (Reuters) The United States sent eight more US F-22 stealth fighter planes to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa today in their first full deployment overseas.

The Raptors, the US Air Force's most advanced fighters and said to be the most expensive fighter planes ever built, arrived at the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, a Reuters photographer and a TV cameraman said.

Their arrival was a week later than originally scheduled, although yesterday an advance pair of F-22 Raptors landed.

Dozens of activists gathered near the air base to protest the deployment in Japan of the stealth fighter planes. ''Raptors, go home!'' they repeatedly shouted in chorus.

Ten Raptors had been expected to land in Japan today, but only eight arrived. US Air Force officials said the other two stealth fighter planes had landed on Wake Island, Hawaii, because one of the planes had trouble with its generator.

A US military spokesman earlier denied a report that the delay was due to a demand from North Korea during six-country talks on its nuclear arms programme in Beijing, which ended last Tuesday with an energy-for-arms deal.

The US Air Force first cited ''operational reasons'' as the cause of the delay of the three-month deployment, then said it was because of software problems.

US Air Force General Ronald Keys said last month that the F-22 was combat-ready, rejecting a report by the Pentagon's Office of Operational Test and Evaluation that said it was still not ''operationally suitable'' because its defensive avionics had response-time and threat-identification problems.

The Raptors are able to gather data from multiple sources to track, identify and kill air-to-air threats before being detected by radar, and have significant surface-strike capability, according to the U.S. Air Force Web site.

The airplane's first overseas deployment would help acquaint US forces in the Pacific region with the new war fighter and allow joint training with F-16, F-15E and F-18 fighter jets in the region, Lt Col Wade Tolliver, commander of the 27th Fighter Squadron of F-22s, said last month.

REUTERS PB KN1406