Posted on 04/29/2016 12:17:19 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
During his long tenure at the Pentagon, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates made many good decisions that helped soldiers and enhanced U.S. security. But his choice to truncate the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor program at 187 jets was an exception. With threats to American air superiority growing, it is time for Congress to consider resurrecting the jet or finding a suitable replacement.
Conceived in the 1980s, the F-22 Raptor was designed to secure dominance of the skies for decades. America needed fighters that could outperform the newest Soviet models from Sukhoi and MiG. To counter them, the Raptor incorporated cutting-edge technologies that had never been combined in a single aircraft: composite materials, computer avionics, thrust-vectoring engine nozzles, and radar countermeasures. It became the first “fifth generation” fighter, a high-speed, super-maneuverable stealth aircraft that still outclasses everything else in air-to-air combat.
Yet by the time the Raptor started rolling off the production line in 2002, the high-tech threats it had been designed to defeat had faded from view. Instead of Russian MiGs, Pentagon leaders were worried about improvised explosive devices.
When Mr. Gates took over the Pentagon in 2006, he found it suffering from what he called “next-war-itis”—an unhealthy focus on preparing for future conflicts and buying high-tech weapons. In response to changing threats, the Air Force had scaled back the F-22 program from 750 to 381 aircraft. In 2009, however, Mr. Gates canceled a number of defense-procurement programs and limited F-22 production to 187 jets.
Today the U.S. Air Force’s fleet is the smallest and the oldest it has ever been. Meanwhile, Russia and China have been fielding and exporting new fighters and sophisticated air defenses to countries like Iran. Russia rolled out its first fifth-generation stealth fighter, the PAK-FA, in 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Ghostrider, you are cleared for takeoff, unrestricted!
Uh, wait one, have to re-boot, I am sure those pinned down grunts can wait.
I love that GIF in this thread, btw, dunno now who posted it.
“Not likely. . .we can’t field a 1-G, 25 knot, two-dimensional maneuvering, land-based unmanned tank. . .let alone field a hyper-sonic, multi-axis maneuvering, high-G platform able to survive in a complex A/A environment.”
Unmanned on land is a much harder control problem than unmanned in the air.
And since Boeing built about 30% of the jet. . .good idea.
Disagree.
Very true, unfortunately.
I think that the economics of anything newer is going to be prohibitive.
The country is broke. Just the least amount of stress on the system and its gonna fall apart.
Some accountability would be nice, especially given the enormous sums wasted on the F-35.
HA! LM would score HUGE if the F22 line reopened to the tune of BILLIONS of $$$’s.
You think F35 is a money pit, you ain’t seen nothing.
The US government is responsible for this mess and no one else.
Active Duty ping.
LM is barely holding on in CA...regulatory climate almost exceeds technical expertise and flying climate...almost.
I don’t see anybody complaining about the trillion dollars that Obama dropped on the Dept. of Education, HUD, and several of his other favorite govt. agencies. But when DoD needs anything, the answer is always, “There’s no money...” The totally bogus $400 billion bank bailout would’ve purchased 100 CVN aircraft carriers. The money is there, it’s just being squandered in bad directions. This is what happens when you have a president that won’t do his job by submitting a budget and idiots in congress give him a blank check to keep the govt. quasi-running.
The “enourmous sums wasted” is media fiction. I can’t blame anybody for having that view, a positive news story on the F-35 is about as common as a story praising Sarah Palin or her kids. The news media and DemonRats in congress have opposed every weapon system fielded since the Korean War. In the 1970s, they were going gangbusters to defeat the E-3 AWACS, which has proven to be the greatest force-multiplier in aviation history. The AV-8 Harrier was “The Widowmaker”. The F-16 “Electric Jet” was unsustainable in a deployed location. The F-14 would die because it’s not a good dogfighter and can’t pull 9g like the F-16. On and on and on...
It’s not a choice about what HAS been spent. That is water under the bridge. There is no money coming in. If interest rates simply normalize the entire budget will be interest on the debt and Medicare. This will happen in your lifetime.
It’s my understanding that a trillion dollars has been spent on the F-35 and most of them can’t even fly. Is this incorrect?
No, it’s not. The F-35 “Trillion Dollar Jet” is a work of fiction. And I don’t know where you’re getting this idea that they can’t fly. I live near Hill AFB and they’re buzzing like fireflies over here. Like every new jet, they have issues that need to be worked. The F-15 was so big you could see it from 30 miles away, everything would get eyes-on it first. The F-16 was so tiny that it couldn’t possibly carry any decent amount of fuel. The AWACS is a piece of junk that will be the first to die in any conflict. The F-117’s stealth is a myth and it’s not accurate enough to hit anything with its one bomb. Sound familiar? There’s people that make a career being naysayers, get your head out of Pierre Sprey’s talking points, that idiot’s in-grown mustache has popped too many holes in his brain.
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