Posted on 07/21/2009 12:28:13 PM PDT by meandog
The U.S. Senate voted 58-40 on Tuesday to halt production of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter.
The fighter is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) through its Aeronautics unit based in Marietta, Ga.
The F-22 program, to develop, build and buy the jets, is managed by Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The center is part of Air Force Materiel Command, a major command that also is headquartered there. The command executes cradle-to-grave research and acquisition of all Air Force weapon technology, including new aircraft.
The Senate’s vote to trim $1.75 billion from a $680 billion defense bill will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs across America, Lockheed has previously said. Production of the F-22 at the Marietta plant will now stop in 2012. However, the plant also builds the C-130J Hercules and will begin building the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The Air Force had planned to order 20 Raptors in 2010 and 40 more in coming years before the U.S. Department of Defense decided in April to order no more. The DOD ordered 187 Raptors in total over the life of the program, some of which are still being built.
Widely acknowledged as the most capable fighter aircraft in the world, the $150 million F-22 has been under fire for years for bleeding away money needed elsewhere. George W. Bush’s administration wanted to kill it, but was overruled by Congress and by the U.S. Air Force, which wanted more of the aircraft. The Air Force originally wanted 750 F-22s.
While the aircraft is stealthy and can cruise at supersonic speeds, its high cost raised questions about whether it’s the proper allocation of increasingly limited government resources, especially in a recession.
No, course not, we need to piss our money away on health care for illegals and other freeloaders.
Republicans who voted “NO” (keep funding the program). I’ll give a pass to Chambliss. Perhaps there is a Defense Hawk argument to be made, not sure. If not it’s a discouraging list.
Bennett (R-UT)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Thune (R-SD
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
The aircraft was justified on initial numbers (from the government) of 900 aircraft. Now we are only building 187 aircraft and the cost must be spread out over that much smaller number. Obama and his cronies all know this...now so do you.
"The Raptor’s advantages over an F-15 are remarkable. It flies better than anything I have ever flown or flown against."F-16 and F-15 Pilots take on F-22...and die wholesale in the process
"Aggressor pilots are not typical Air Force line units. They tend to have much more experience," says Mike Estrada, a spokesman at the air base. "And I can tell you that our Aggressor pilots are getting very tired of always getting shot down by the F-22."F-22 Performance statistics released
"My F-16 is still a formidable weapons system in its own right. But it is not even in the same league as an F-22," Brenton says. "Technology keeps the F-22 a virtually undetectable and untouchable regime. It is fair to say that unless an F-22 driver makes a mistake, or has a critical system failure, I will always lose a fight against him. That is a good thing. As a nation, we want it this way. We also want him to be able to handle two, six or eight of us completely on his own."
When it comes to fighting Raptors, regeneration is an expected occurrence for WIC Red Teams. "We do everything we can to try and challenge them: We increase our total numbers, we regenerate, we electronically jam the environment. And we die," Brenton says. "We die wholesale. We are kill-removed repeatedly and then regenerated, and then we are killed again. The process would be demoralizing if we didn't maintain proper perspective. This is our job while we are here. What motivates us is the fact that we are training our brethren—and they are damn good at what they do."
But now, we will end up at 187 of these fabulous, most modern, most dominant fighters.
187 F-22's, 20- B-2's and 100 B-1B's. Does anyone else not see anything wrong with this picture?
These are tremendous force multipliers for us...we need many more to ensure our absolute dominance...but we have a marxist in the White House, abetted by more of the same in congress, who are not interested in us dominating anything.
To the contrary, they appear hell bent on us being dominated at home and abroad. They thus fail to fulfill the very most basic function of government. \
A PETITION FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
A 4TH OF JULY TEA PARTY SPEECH
...and on the lighter side, take your mind off the Obamanation for a few minutes and enjoy some beautiful Western US scenery slideshows.
The price of this was one tenth 1/10 of what we gave GM!! (the first time)
A Chevy Impala ain’t gonna cut it against a Su-30.
Idiots
58 worthless a-holes!
What is the use of the word “pig” intended to mean?
Do you support the pig?
Do you believe we still need more of these?
What can they do in this day and age?
Why is this a pig?
Give both Chambling and Isakson the pass as the F22 would have been made in Georgia.
It seems you, Zer0, Zero's lap dog Gates and RINO McCain are in agreement.
So 0bama and the Democrats kill even PROVEN superior weapon systems!
Pig? How do you figure?
In every possible way it was a pig. It took 30 hours of maintenance for every hour spent in the air. It is not needed, cost too much, cannot land on aircraft carriers, and has absolutely nothing to fight. A boondoogle on the scale of the F111!
ROFLOL, only on paper!!!
Surprised to see Boxer and Feinstein voting nay.
You are correct, it is nothing more than a worthless toy!!
Not all. Some 'Rats and RINOs were looking out for jobs in their states: Lieberman, Snowe, Collins, Feinstein, Boxer and several others.
“ROFLOL, only on paper!!!”
You must be thinking of the yet to be qualified F-35.
The F-22 has been kicking the (105-0 combat record) F-15’s butt in live-fly exercises for years.
Canceling this program is a huge mistake, based on the idea that our fighters will never encounter a first-tier opponent. With 0bama at the helm, that is far from a given.
Next, Russia will probably produce an exportable knockoff, and gain some nice market share.
It does not need to land on an aircraft carrier...it is an Airforce aircraft. The F-15 cannot land on an aircraft carrier, the F-16 cannot land on an aircraft carrier, the A-10 cannot land on an aircraft carrier.
As regards maintenance, is a new weapons system (as compared to others which it is being compared against). By the time it matures its maintenance record will also be down to those levels.
It is unparalled in its ability to KILL other aircraft, as evidenced by the quotes of our own agressor pilots above. Agressor pilots are the ones who train our younger piltos and they themselves are having their backsides handed to them in F-16s, F-15s, etc. by Raptor pilots.
That is EXACTLY what we want in an air superiority fighter...and the F-22 delivers it.
As the one agressor pilot, who has gone up against this aricraft says above...
"I will always lose a fight against him. That is a good thing. As a nation, we want it this way. We also want him to be able to handle two, six or eight of us completely on his own."
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