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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?

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.

You are not going to ever see a situation where one Raptor is alone against 20 enemy aircraft, all of them fighters.

I can image one scenario where this situation could possibly play out.

And that would be a Chinese mass assault on Taiwan.

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?

Wolf

"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 :-) :-)

4 Raptors would destroy 20 current enemy fighters with ease,

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