(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
it was probably sarcasm)
Posted on 06/29/2005 10:22:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - Demonstrating agility as graceful as a ballet, stunning aerobatic-like skills such as "standing" on its tail and the lethal firepower of air-launched missiles and a six-barrel Gatling gun cannon, even a brief video of the F/A-22 Raptor in action gives one an idea of the air supremacy it promises. "That is as fun as it looks," said John Fergione, F/A-22 experimental test pilot for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co . Fergione presented an update on the F/A-22 Raptor program to members of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade on Tuesday.
The dominance of the F/A-22 in a battle situation was demonstrated during an operational testing exercise which pitted eight of the Air Force's top F-15C Eagle aggressor pilots against four Raptors, two of those held back in support positions.
The aircraft began their exercise 100 miles apart. Four and half minutes later, the exercise was over when all the F-15s were "killed," Fergione said.
"They finally gave up their playbook and went home. They never even saw the Raptors," he said.
"I don't think we've ever had operational testing as one-sided as this."
The fighter, the newest addition to the Air Force arsenal, continues developmental testing at Edwards Air Force Base, while preparing for the inauguration of the aircraft's first operational squadron by the end of the year at Langley AFB, Va.
The F/A-22 is designed to provide absolute air dominance, knocking out enemy air defenses both in the air and on the ground.
"The whole idea is to get our forces on the ground and knock on their door," Fergione said. "If you don't have air dominance, don't even think of it."
Comparable in size to an F-15, the Raptor is primarily an air-to-air fighter, although it has the capability to fulfill multiple roles that now require individual aircraft such as the F-15, F-16 and stealthy F-117, Fergione said.
"Just the threat of this airplane being in theater … is enough to keep an enemy pilot from not wanting to go (in the air)," he said.
Unlike the F-16 and other fighters, the Raptor's combat weapon and fuel stores are completely internal, in order to preserve the airplane's stealthy characteristics and allow it to present as small a radar return as possible.
These internal stores mean the F/A-22 flies in the same configuration for training as in combat. The F-16, on the other hand, flies without external fuel tanks and weapons during training flights. For combat, "you're hanging stuff all over it," which changes the flight characteristics, Fergione said.
The F/A-22's extremely powerful twin Pratt & Whitney engines - 35,000 pounds of thrust each - allow it to fly supersonic without using afterburner. This increases not only speed but also altitude, enabling the aircraft to cover more territory.
This supercruise capability also means that the Raptor can deliver weapons from farther away, before the enemy even knows they're coming, Fergione said.
Those engines also pivot, providing extra control by directing the force from the jet exhaust. This additional control, called thrust vectoring, aids the F/A-22 in its agility and allows maneuvers such as standing in mid-air on its tail.
The fighter's single pilot is aided by the aircraft's advanced avionics, providing all the information necessary to carry out a mission in the cockpit's digital displays. These displays show the standard information such as fuel supply, altitude and air speed, as well as crucial information such as quickly identifying targets.
"Everything on there has been provided. The pilot does no work to get that information," Fergione said. "All we know is it's magic. It's just there."
The Raptors are unique in that they use datalinks to "talk" to each other, sharing information between aircraft and allowing the pilots to coordinate their attacks without even speaking, he said.
With initial operational test and evaluation complete, the next milestone for the F/A-22 fleet is standing up the first operational squadron at Langley AFB. In addition to Edwards and Langley, the Raptors are based at Nellis AFB, Nev., for operational testing and Tyndell AFB in Florida for training.
Lockheed Martin recently completed the 47th Raptor at its facility in Marietta, Ga.
The aircraft are priced at approximately $130 million each, not including the development costs. This is slightly more than a brand-new F-15C, Fergione said.
I wish I could get one of those! Vrooooom!!!!
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Alien technology, PING!
"...and a six-barrel Gatling gun cannon"
What's a gun cannon?
Does anyone have a guess how the Raptor stacks up against the latest Sukhois?
?
Nothing could be as much fun as flying one of these. Being a Raptor pilot has to be as close to heaven on Earth as you could possibly get.
I almost feel bad for whatever pilots from whatever country that is going to be the Raptor's first combat kills. If 2 of these can down a flight of 8 F-15C's & D's I'd hate to think what a full squadron of them could do against an enemy with hostile intent.
Silly question. Ain't a contest. The Sukhois would die like flies. Only limit on the number of kills they would get are the number missiles they can carry on the sortie.
I'm sure the sukhois suk.
Also I'm sure that the 5 training flying hours per year the Ruuuskies get doesn't even stack up.
A joke.
There's a conspiracy theory that the nav and fire control systems of the F-22 were backward engineered from Alien technology, so too with stealth. Run a google search, you'll find it.
By all accounts the F-22 is a "air dominance" fighter worthy of replacing the F-15.
And folks may finally realize that the 48th copy isn't as expensive as the first copy.
Isn't that for named the 6 brother musical group 'Gatling Brothers'. Their daddy was a pistol.
The Sukoi's are better dogfighters. More agile. However, in the overall picture, the F-22s eat their lunch.
Cannon would denote that it's a higher caliber than .50 cal (typically upper small arms limit), i.e. probably a 20mm bore (about 3/4" or .75 cal) For comparison, the A-10 carries a 30mm Gatling gun, in fact the A-10 was designed around that weapon. The 30mm is what makes the A-10 a tank killer, it's designed to penetrate heavy ground armor.
A 20mm will take care of anything else.
If extraterrestrials can get here from wherever, I'd want to reverse engineer their systems, too.
I'm not so sure this is correct. Ever other number I have seen is saying at least twice tha much. Maybe that is how much they will cost if they went into mass production. However, if this article is true and the F-22 can easily take on and defeat four times it's number while costing only a bit more than an F-15C, then I change my mind about the cost effectiveness of them. Let's order a thousand.
Ahhhh...gonna be hard for these aircraft to get air to air combat kills when other Airforces decide to just "stay on the ground"...like in Iraq during operation Iraqi Freedom.
Maybe if we slug it out with the Chicomms, we'll find out.
That's been the big push by the USAF for these aircraft...their capacity to down a large number of an opposing airforces flying POSs (like China)
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