Based on what? We have about 180 Raptors. Situation.. dust up and we deploy the Raptors. We send maybe 3-4 squadrons.. 60 airplanes or 1/3 of the fleet. At any given point the frag calls for maybe 20-30 birds... half the deployed fleet.

Let's say it is the Chinese with J-10s and their SU-27 knock-offs. Lots of 'em. After the initial dump, the Raptors are winchester and still more J-10s and -27s are coming. Launch the rest of the Raptors?

Where are the Raptors based? Japan. Korea? Guam? How about tankers to get them to/from the dust-up?

The Raptor was an easy grape to pick when looking for budget cuts. But enough for a real dust-up? We disagree.