Posted on 03/06/2006 4:51:13 PM PST by MARKUSPRIME
March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The 94th Fighter Squadron, famous for its historic "Hat in the Ring" insignia and legendary aviator Eddy Rickenbacker, began receiving F-22 Raptors from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) today. The two 5th Generation stealthy, air dominance fighters are assigned to the second operational squadron in the U.S. Air Force.
ADVERTISEMENT The two Raptors will join F-22s flying today as part of the 1st Fighter Wing's 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va. Lockheed Martin has completed final assembly on 71 of the 107 fighters now on contract, and 63 have been delivered.
"This is another great milestone in the history of the F-22 Program," said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President and F-22 Program General Manager. "The F-22 will dominate airspace anywhere around the globe, around the clock, and survive in contested airspace better than any other aircraft in the world.
He said they had noticed it too. Maybe it was jealousy but he said that wing was generally considered the worst one in the Air Force. Now they get the F-22 first.
Old Navy truism; Those closest to the flagpole get the goodies/funding first.
I thought the contract was for 277 Raptors, not 107.
Have the morons who think all we need now are "special forces and drones because the only enemies now are non-state actors" reduced it again?
Grrr...we should never have reduced it from the original requirement of 700 Raptors.
>:(
I know you didn't write that headline,
but Langley Virginia is Fairfax County, inside the DC beltway. It's home of the CIA, near the Potomac River.
The F-22's are in Hampton, Virginia, of course.
(at Langley Air Force Base)
You got RIGHT. #'s may not win wars but it never hurts to have the ALL Air Force Fighter Squadrons out fitted with 'em all.
I used to live in Tidewater Virginia and have been on Langley many times. It is a nice looking base and still fairly close to the Pentagon.
Yep. Quality is much more important than quantity, but 1 F/A-22 is not going to be able to defeat 20 enemy aircraft. What happens when your hardpoints are empty and your guns are dry?
We need as many F/A-22s as possible. I believe we have about 900 F-15s. Therefore, we need about 900 F/A-22s to replace them.
You leave the area ASAP.
I think I've read that in a recent simulation, the F-22 was at least 10 times more likely to survive all known threats in any given area than the F-15. When you are a U.S. Marine on the ground, having the skies over you dominated by however many F-22's has to be important. I understand that most fighter pilots want them because they are very, very hard to shoot down with SAM's.
The F-22's role isn't close air support. That's supposed to be the job of the F-35 JSF.
183 is the number they are making initially. Then they have to go back to congress to ask for more. I really get sick of our politicians.
It doesn't really work that way. You are not going to ever see a situation where one Raptor is alone against 20 enemy aircraft, all of them fighters. Typically you will see a 2-section or a 4-section. 4 Raptors would destroy 20 current enemy fighters with ease, but they would not get the chance.
As soon as airplanes start blowing up, those remaining would run like hell from the area. We don't need 900 Raptors under any circumstances. 200-250 will be plenty. Air Combat is never a war of attrition.
I say cut Medicare, Medicaid, abolish the Dept of Edu. and BUY 2500 of these babies!
I saw an interview with the pilot of that "fight". He said it was like clubbing baby seals.
Well, here & now is 2006, a year that offers us the possibility of relieving some "symptoms" of said sickness.
Now THAT makes me sick.
Me as well, but that's what he said.
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
Could be the difference between the number of 'authorized' aircraft and those actually funded to date.
Well if the Air Force had been thinking, they would have had the F-22 lose, thereby proving that they need more of them than what they're gonna get.
"183 is the number they are making initially. Then they have to go back to congress to ask for more. I really get sick of our politicians."
Yep, me too >:(
They need to get their heads out of their arses and realize how important having technologically advanced modern equipment is to winning wars. It's infuriating how stupid and shortsited a lot of these politicians are.
Some of them (RATS mostly) even wanted to kill the F/A-22 entirely. >:(
When was it reduced to 183 from 277?
Oh, now I see. That could be what the figure 107 refers to. Thanks.
The fighter squads in Alaska are being phased out as the F-22s based in Washington come online. The F-22s can get to Alaska intercepts as quickly as having the present wings already in Alaska. Speed plus range plus vastly improved systems make that big a difference.
No. Then Congress would say you don't need a new plane if the old ones work just fine. That's the way it works.
"It doesn't really work that way. You are not going to ever see a situation where one Raptor is alone against 20 enemy aircraft, all of them fighters. Typically you will see a 2-section or a 4-section. 4 Raptors would destroy 20 current enemy fighters with ease, but they would not get the chance."
I know such a situation is extremely unlikely. What I meant was that if we are faced by an AF with large numbers of modern aircraft, we need a significant number of Raptors to counter the threat. Otherwise, some military-hating politicians like Kerry would have the military buy 5 Raptors and say "that's enough"
"As soon as airplanes start blowing up, those remaining would run like hell from the area. We don't need 900 Raptors under any circumstances. 200-250 will be plenty. Air Combat is never a war of attrition."
I guess you're right. It would be pretty cool to have 900 Raptors in the AF though :)
If we only order 250 I guess the F-15s won't be replaced on a one-for-one basis.
"One F-22 took on FIVE F-15's driven by F-22 qualified pilots. The fight was over before the F-15's even knew he was there. That's very impressive stuff. F-22 may not be able to kill 20 enemy birds but after 4 or 5 most will turn and run. Of course the F-22 can outrun most stuff simply be fuel conservation. Mach 1 without the burners on is very cool $hit."
Yep, I heard about that. The F-15 pilot couldnt even detect the Raptor on radar, and only became aware of him when he had visual. The Raptor's an awesome plane :-) :-)
wouldnt that be nice. How 'bout we abolish welfare and buy 3,000 :-D
1. F-15 Eagle
2. F-14 Tomcat
3. F-22 Raptor
4. A-10 Warthog
5. F-16 Falcon
6. SR-71 Blackbird
7. F/A 18 Super Hornet
8. B1 Lancer
9. B-52 Superfortress
10. AC-130 Spectre/Striker
just my thoughts anyway...
That was all brought out during the base closure hearings here in Fairbanks last summer. It seems kind of amazing to me. Those new planes must be close to being Star Wars X-fighters.
I don't believe this is correct. The F-22 will be based in Alaska, but not in Washington.
Yeah, and we really don't need Alaska, do we?...
Yeah our legacy craft can still kick ass with awacs and BVR missiles.The F-15 is still a beast. :)
Yes.
What, you think we don't watch China by satellite 24/7? Do you have any idea what it would take to stage such an attack? Long before they were ready to go, our subs would be parked in every major water way, ready to sink any ship that moved. Then the President calls China and asks if they really want to dance.
Come on.
"A huge wave with a little of everything they have from Mig21's (out of the bone yard lightly loaded with guns and ground attack rockets) to the lasted and greatest fighters they have. ECM aircraft, Blinders and BackFires coming in supersonic on the waters deck, surface to surface missile assault and so on.
Call me an idiot if you want, but say why too. You cant absolutely deny such a scenario can you?"
I could definitely see such a scenario. The Chinese have tons of aircraft. They have around 1,000 MiG-21s of various configurations, from the "Vanilla J-7" with only 2 hardpoints to the more capable MiG-21 variants like the regular J-7 and the J-8I/II.
Then they have 150 Su-30 MKK, about 200 Su-27s (plus around 160+ more being built) and maybe 100 J-10s, with more J-10s entering service each year. Apparently, the PLAAF has opted not to acquire the FC-1.
Then there are almost 1,500 MiG-19s (extremely old but in such huge numbers, formidable) and about 470 ancient planes used for training but still combat capable, mostly MiG-17s.
Finally there are 120 obsolete Tu-16 bombers.
That's 3,000 planes. Even if all our Raptors were on Taiwan they'd be outnumbered more than 16-1.
And thats not counting ones possibly destroyed by the Chinese missile strikes on Taiwan before the ChiCom AF arrives.
If my info is correct, the new-generatiomn F-15 (G?) is a 1/2 step away from the F-22 (when you throw in the avionics).
And it looks like a noble swan.
Their advantage is stealth, which is fine right until a new advance in sensor technology allows an enemy to target them.
Like the surprises that our F-117's encountered over Serbia
We already are faced with that, and it is not a problem. Our older aircraft are not going anywhere soon. The nice thing about our enemies is that they tend to park their aircraft close together. A JDAM or two makes a nice pile of scrap metal.
I tell FReepers all the time, when it comes to warfare, the U.S. does not fight fair.
"Then the President calls China and asks if they really want to dance."
You're assuming we will still have a courageous and assertive president when this happens.
If Hillary asks the president of China to dance, it will be literal, and she will be whispering the location of US military assets in his ear while they waltz across the dance floor.
If the ChiComs are smart, they will wait for a weak wimp of a president before making a move.
"Like the surprises that our F-117's encountered over Serbia"
Exactly. We should never underestimate an enemy. A lot of the time, there are unpleasant surprises in war, and things dont go exactly according to plan.
The F-117A downed over Serbia was actually shot down by an obsolete SA-3 Goa, an old missile not believed to be capable of tracking down and killing a "stealth" fighter like the Nighthawk.
We have submarines that WE THINK the Chinese can't find.
The Purple and Enigma codes are utterly unbreakable, too.
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