Why F-22s Cannot Fly Into Tomorrow

The Strategy Page ^ | March 14, 2007 | James Dunnigan

[IonImplantGuru]

Recently, American F-22 fighters were sent, for the first time, across the Pacific, to Japan, for a training exercise. This would be the first time the aircraft would cross the International Date line, where it is tomorrow, and the aircraft's GPS and navigation software would handle the date change.

There were problems.

All off a sudden the software that ran the navigation and communications systems wasn't working too well. Being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this was a problem. Some of the pilots were able to reboot their software and make the problem go away, but this did not always work, so all the aircraft turned around and returned to Hawaii. Those aircraft that still had malfunctioning navigation software, followed other aircraft back.

The contractor quickly found and fixed the problem (the routines for crossing the International Date Line, and changing the date, were not well thought out and tested.)

To quote Murphy's Law; "Whatever can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible time."

[Elsie]

Then why did the planes have to turn around in mid flight?

For the same reason that you can only walk halfway into the forest.

[sauropod]

We should celebrate other cultures, don'tcha know.

/Retch

[Elsie]

WOW!

Does THIS bring back memories!!!

[Elsie]

GLONASS

[sam_paine]

mele kalikimaka!

[CDHart]

well, at least they discovered the problem prior to using them in a wartime situation.

Carolyn

[grey_whiskers]

I am going to assume that you know how many GPS satellites that there are in service and how many reserves that we have. Further I will postulate that you know that China has proven that they can shoot down satellites. Finally, if China is practicing a global fighting war without satellites and the US is not then which country is screwed?

What height was the satellite at which was shot down?

What height do the GPS satellites sit at?

A billion mouths to feed is a liability. All we have to do is take out some of their food & water supplies...

Cheers!

[KansasConservative1]

These are very complex aircraft. Projects have issues and this issue, thankfully, did not kill anyone. I am sure this is fixed and we are moving on. Why does everyone expect perfection with every American endevor. Life is about challanges and how we deal with our mistakes is at least as important as how we deal with our successes.

[CholeraJoe]

The F-15 has never been shot down by another aircraft in combat.

And they've been in real combat how many times? None?

[stockpirate]

Have you seen any film footage on the F22?

[sukhoi-30mki]

Are you asking about the F-15?????It's got something like a 95-0 kill record(A good chunk by the Israelis).Started with the Israelis in the 80s-last ones downed by Eagles were 2 Syrian Mig-29s in 2001.

[stockpirate]

If the F22 is in a sharp turn in combat it can use it moveable engines to turn the nose of the aircraft to point right at the other plane.

It can almost make a right angled turn by moving the tail around with its movable engines.

[CholeraJoe]

Yes. I've touched a real one too. A very good friend is a Project Manager for a subcontractor for the F-22 and I've toured their factory. Her parts are engine bay doors, aft booms, bulkheads, vacuum panels and upper side-of-body panels.

They have some huge computerized Japanese precision milling machines that can turn a lump of titanium into a finished part in about 3 days.

[CholeraJoe]

Forgot about the Israelis. (Sorry Bibi) I was thinking US.

[mad_as_he$$]

I saw a story last week that indicated that after review there had been 2 F-22's shot down. Didn't cite the source though. In any frame that is a stunning achievement. 120:1 kill ratio against planes that have very high kill ratios themselves.

[sukhoi-30mki]

American ones too have seen combat & tasted blood-Desert Storm & over the Balkans(96 & 99) including downing a couple of (comparable) Mig-29s.

[mad_as_he$$]

Oh yea the F-105 triple threat.

As far as UAV's there are several in the works that will have self defense software/capability. It will be up to the program developers to decide how to implement it. I for one would love to see a Mach1 UAV that could decide to take that exact course against a SAM.

FWIW there are rumors in the weapons world (not telling any secrets here - it is common talk). That F-22's will be able to control their own stealth UAV pack. So you are some raghead sitting watching you search radar one night and all of the sudden you have 10 unknowns and you scramble you fighters to attack, F-22's hit you from behind and you never saw them. Now that is cool $hit.

[redgolum]

I sometimes wonder about that.

We have a lot of GPS navigation built into military hardware, which will be useless against a sophisticated enemy.

[mad_as_he$$]

I guess the Canadians went home really pissed from Red Flag.

[mad_as_he$$]

The article does state that hey were F-15c's. Interesting that other articles (sloppy) seem to indicate F-22's. I do believe that there was one F-22 kill in Alaska when the pilot got cocky and popped up too high and a 15 got a bead on him.