or 
Your choice.
Posted on 07/15/2009 11:49:05 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Supporters of building more F-22 fighters have their backs against the wall. The President, the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force leadership and the Senate's top military experts have all declared that the U.S. needs no more than the 187 of the $350 million fighters it has already bought. So the F-22's backers are changing their tactics in demanding more planes, relying on arguments from second-tier officers, citing imaginary threats and introducing the most potent argument of all these days: preserving 25,000 well-paying jobs.
-snip-
Chambliss also sought a letter of support from the chief of the Air National Guard, who praised the F-22's "unique" capabilities and said its deployment with his reserve forces "is the most responsible approach to satisfying all of our nation's needs." Of course, the U.S. military has never been able to satisfy all of the nation's needs. Assembling a military is a balancing act, where threats are ranked and priorities set so that most of the available money is channeled toward countering the most likely threats. But so long as generals — backed by lawmakers — see it as their job to satisfy "all of the nation's needs," the taxpayers will continue buying unbelievably costly weapons to protect us from unbelievably minuscule threats.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
or Your choice.
Thread bump.
No, I think the Pentagon would rather go with this rather than the F-22:
[img]http://www.defencetalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/f-35-jsf-air-combat.jpg[/img]
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LOL! very true.
Yup, we don’t need more air superiority fighters. We have the best the world has or ever will see. Ignore the declining rates of US citizens who graduate from our engineering colleges. Ignore our cratering manufacturing base. We’re the best, so why spend more money on maintainung production and upkeep facilities? It’s just a waste of money. Besides, if the EVIL USA lets other nations catch up, they won’t feel as threatened, and we’ll all be safer.
/ALL HEAVY SARC
Estimates for the fighter jet range from as little as $132 million to as much as $312 million. So far, the Air Force has invested as much as $28 billion in the Raptor's research, development and testing. That money, referred to as a "sunk cost," is already spent and is separate from money used for future decision-making, including procuring a copy of the jet.
By the time all 183 jets have been purchased, around $28 billion will have been spent on research and development. An additional $34 billion will have been spent on actually procuring the aircraft. That's about $62 billion for the total program cost. Divided out, that's comes to about $338 million per aircraft.
But the reality is, if the Air Force wanted to buy just one more jet, it would cost the taxpayer less than half that amount. The current cost for a single copy of an F-22 stands at about $137 million. And that number has dropped by 23 percent since Lot 3 procurement, General Lewis said.
"The cost of the airplane is going down," he said. "And the next 100 aircraft, if I am allowed to buy another 100 aircraft ... the average fly-away cost would be $116 million per airplane."
Maybe because this thread is about the F-22, not the F-35.
Our government has no mandate if it cannot defend us.
I posted your link. The question remains.
That is one great photo.
Are Russian bombers known to fly over Alaska often?
Meanwhile, let's discuss the procurement of more F-22's -- several hundred more, or maybe a thousand. Earlier in the thread
U.S. Sir Force DFifth Generation Fighter: The F22A Raptor Requirements Retreat
I posted the following:
Each State Air Guard unit needs at least one squadron (18 fighters per squadron). Several coastal States should have a full wing (3 squadrons): Alaska, California, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Hawaii, the Dakotas and Maine. Some pacifist New England States probably may not want any. So figure at least one thousand fighters to cover threats from north, west, south and east.
You like dead pilots and destroyed us aircraft?
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