Quick Facts
Event	F-22 Raptor demo team cancels New Zealand debut
Airshow	Warbirds Over Wanaka 2026 (April 3–5, Otago, New Zealand)
Reason	Unspecified “operational requirements” — widely believed to be Iran conflict
Aircraft Pulled	Two F-22A Raptors, plus all other US military demo teams
Show Status	Proceeding with 100+ civilian and warbird aircraft
Demo Pilot	Captain Nick “Laz” Le Trouneau (cancelled)

Two F-22 Raptors were supposed to be the star attraction at New Zealand’s biggest airshow this Easter weekend. Instead, the world’s most advanced air superiority fighter is somewhere else entirely — and the Air Force isn’t saying where.

Related: Blue Angels Grounded as Iran War Locks Down Bases

The US Air Force pulled its F-22 Raptor demonstration team from Warbirds Over Wanaka less than a week before the show’s April 3 opening, citing “operational requirements.” It would have been the Raptor’s first-ever appearance in New Zealand — and only 183 F-22s exist worldwide, making any public appearance a rare event.

Captain Nick “Laz” Le Trouneau, the team commander, was scheduled to fly the demo from Christchurch International Airport. The cancellation extended beyond just the F-22 — all US military demonstration assets pulled out of the show.

The Iran Effect

Nobody is saying it officially, but nobody needs to. Operation Epic Fury has been running since February 28, and the US military is under enormous strain. The Blue Angels cancelled their entire 2026 season. Air Force and Navy squadrons across the globe have had training exercises, port calls, and demonstration commitments scrapped as combat operations absorb every available asset.

The F-22 fleet is particularly stretched. With only 183 airframes ever built and a significant portion undergoing maintenance at any given time, every operational Raptor matters. The type has been deployed in the Middle East for air superiority missions, and pulling two jets plus a full support package to New Zealand for an airshow simply wasn’t sustainable.

Warbirds Over Wanaka General Manager Ed Taylor told local media that losing the military participants was disappointing but understandable. The show is going ahead regardless.

Spitfires Instead of Stealth

And going ahead it is — with more than 100 aircraft confirmed. The lineup reads like a living aviation museum: a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, multiple Yakovlev Yak-3s, a North American P-51 Mustang, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s new Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft alongside its freshly delivered C-130J Super Hercules.

There’s a certain poetry in a warbirds show losing its most modern fighter and filling the gap with the aircraft that won the last world war. For the thousands of aviation enthusiasts descending on the Otago valley this Easter, the Spitfire’s Merlin engine will have to do what the Raptor’s Pratt & Whitney F119s could not: show up.

The real question isn’t about one airshow. It’s about how long Operation Epic Fury can sustain this pace before the ripple effects — cancelled shows, deferred training, exhausted maintenance crews — start to undermine the very readiness the Air Force needs for the next crisis.

Sources: Stars and Stripes, Aerospace Global News, Warbirds Over Wanaka