PUBLISHED on August 16, 2025, 4:50 PM EDT – Key Points and Summary: In a massive display of airpower, the U.S. Air Force’s 1st Fighter Wing recently conducted one of the largest “elephant walks” in history, featuring 24 F-22 Raptors—one-eighth of the entire fleet.
-The exercise at Langley Air Force Base was designed to showcase the wing’s ability to rapidly mobilize for high-stress scenarios and serve as a powerful morale booster for pilots and ground crews.
-This awe-inspiring show of force underscores the F-22’s critical role in America’s air dominance strategy and demonstrates its readiness for any potential conflict.
A ‘Proud Day’: Inside the Largest F-22 ‘Elephant Walk’ in History
Morale is everything in warfare. Military personnel with high levels of “animal spirits” – who are mentally fit, confident, and ready – tend to fight better in battle. Mass is also an important principle of warfare that leads to high morale.
There is something awe-inspiring about having a large number of troops, equipment, and ammunition. Putting them on display creates a valuable flow state leading to victory.
What Is an Elephant Walk?
A third principle of warfare is to train the way you fight. This means 24-7 readiness and high operational tempo can lead to combat wins.
To that end, the U.S. Air Force takes seriously a tradition called “elephant walks.” This is when airplanes in numbers and mass create a show of force while taxiing on a runway to demonstrate a high level of morale and unity in the air wing.
This Elephant Walk Represented One-Eighth of all F-22s in the Fleet
At the beginning of this year, F-22 pilots from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, took part in an elephant walk that showed just how powerful the Raptor fleet is.
Twenty-four F-22s, plus six T-38 Talon trainers, together made for one of the biggest elephant walks in history. The 30 airplanes tied the record for this type of action.
The walk included one-eighth of all the active F-22s in the Air Force fleet.
This Was a Proud Day
This show of force is inspiring to watch, and it promotes confidence.
The aviators, their maintainers, and ground crew get to see a feat that instills pride and wonder at just how powerful the service branch can be.
This is often a key piece of morale-building that rewards all of the training and readiness exercises Air Force personnel execute every day.
“This demonstration highlighted the wing’s ability to mobilize forces rapidly in high-stress scenarios,” the wing said in a statement. “As Air Combat Command’s lead wing, the [1st Fighter Wing] maintains unparalleled combat readiness to ensure national defense at a moment’s notice.”
An Elephant Walk Is Good for the General Public Too
An elephant walk also demonstrates to civilians that the Air Force means business and that the 1st Fighter Wing is prepared to engage the enemy at all times.
The Air Force has 185 F-22s. So this elephant walk by the 94th and 27th Fighter Squadrons represented nearly 13 percent of the fleet. However, only about 50 percent of the 185 Raptors were operational at the time, so the Langley Air Force Base elephant walk brought together a substantial part of the active-duty force of F-22s.
This year, the Air Force began a major upgrade process of its F-22s. The warbirds will receive stealthy new fuel tanks, infrared search and track systems, and new communications and navigation updates.
F-22s will someday be able to fly in manned and unmanned teaming arrangements. They will have loyal wingman drones called Collaborative Combat Aircraft that will help human pilots with missile strikes, electronic warfare, intelligence collection, and battle damage assessment. F-22s will also soon deploy AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missiles.
In 2 Words: Morale Booster
While I was not an Air Force veteran, I did serve in the U.S. Army. We don’t have any official practice like an elephant walk, but there were times when I witnessed massive displays of force while on duty.
I was a light infantry officer, but my morale was extremely high during combined arms training with M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. I remember one time responding to a full alert near the DMZ in South Korea, when a long line of Abrams and Bradleys passed us heading to what we thought was going to be a real battle.
This served to remind me what the long training periods were all about as I lost count of the number of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles that streamed by.
Another way my morale was lifted in the past was having numerous Apache attack helicopters flying overhead. You were sure that air support was coming, and it took the form of awe-inspiring gunships fit to punish any enemy. The loud rotors roaring to life raised the pulse.
The Air Force elephant walks are about lifting morale at a time when pilots and maintainers are preparing for potential combat with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Sometimes a show of force is necessary to remind all personnel how high the stakes are.
Elephant Walks Work
Displaying this large number of airplanes helps inspire officers and airmen, reminding everyone that all oars must be rowing in the same direction.
The Air Force personnel in these squadrons will remember the elephant walk as a time when they had the most operational strength and the ability to overawe the enemy.
That is just what the Department of Defense wants now – a high level of lethality and combat readiness at all times.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
Military Matters
The F-22 Raptor Just Keeps Getting Better
