In a statement posted 1 December 2011, officials at Air Combat Command headquarters at Langley AFB, Virginia, announced that because of sigificant budget constraints, only the F-22 single-ship demonstration team will fly at airshows in 2012. This is down from the six single-ship teams the US Air Force combatant command had historically sponsored. For 2012, the F-22 demonstration team will perform at up to twenty airshows. In addition to the F-22 demo team, the Thunderbirds will fly a full show season in 2012. Reducing the number of single-ship demonstration teams, which included two F-16 teams, will allow ACC to reallocate more than 900 sorties to operational wings for training and provide an increase of more than twenty-five combat-ready fighter pilots.
