Posted on 06/07/2016 11:42:00 AM PDT by bkopto
US Air Force Gen. Mark Welsh made comments at an Air Force Association event on Thursday that were uncharacteristically bullish on the prospect of restarting the F-22 program.
Lockheed Martin shuttered the F-22 program almost five years ago. Since then, the top Air Force brass has been focused on the troubled F-35 program as well as looking decades forward to the Next Generation Air Dominance program.
In April, however, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said in Congress: "In light of growing threats from a resurgent Russia and an aggressive China, further exploration into restarting the F-22 line is deserved."
Welsh's comments on Thursday represented a shift in the Air Force's official attitude toward reviving the F-22; it had previously said doing so would not be cost effective.
"I don't think it's a wild idea," Welsh said, as Defensenews.com notes. "I mean the success of the F-22 and the capability of the airplane and the crews that fly it are pretty exceptional. I think it's proven that the airplane is exactly what everybody hoped it would be."
"We're using it in new and different ways and it's been spectacularly successful and its potential is really, really remarkable," Welsh continued. "And so going back and looking and certainly raising the idea well, could you build more? It's not a crazy idea."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The A-10 is cheap, simple, tough and effective. Those qualities make it unsuitable to be brought back into production.
Another couple trillion dollars and a few more decades might bring us the F35.
I worked on one military contract. Once it gets out to field testing every single general has to piss all over the project and get his little “improvement” mandated. So by the time it even gets back to testing again it is so completely over built, over designed, overly complicated, and over budget it gets scrapped. Stick with what works.
Yes, it still going on in the early 80's.
We saw an A-10 do the shooting run out towards the ocean. The gun just sounded like a loud belch...:^)
Do it!!!
A thoroughbred costs more than a circus pony.
True that, nobody is getting reelected bringing the A-10 back, so it will never happen.
One of my friends was part of the team that dismembered the construction tooling for the Hog. they all cried and drank heavily.
Thanks, I stole an a gem of a .gif.
YES! This has been an obvious move for years!
I hope they also produce a “stretch” version with zero, one or two seats and room for more internal fuel and weapons.
“How is it the most lethal fighter if it hasnt been tested in combat?”
Because it routinely beats the F-15 like a drum in simulated combat. The F-15 is clearly the best Gen-4 fighter.
2 Thumbs up! Well thumbs went everywhere along with the rest of the body parts! lol
maybe this could be a new beginning.
No, that is foolish to think.
We are fundamentally flawed and it is too late to recover.
let grumman or boeing make f-22s if lockheed bitches.
Re:A10 tooling
Was that another Dick Chaney command like the F14 tooling?
I thought the Warthog was the most lethal ,,,
The Hog was an Islamofascist killer. Too many were sent to their 72 Virginians by the Hog, and Obama axed it.
Alahwahoo Whackbar!/S
“I thought the Warthog was the most lethal ,,,”
The Warthog is not even on the radar for air-to-air. Even for “lethal combat planes” in general, I’d go with the B1-B, given its supersonic capability, a greater bomb load than the B-52, and the ability to drop nuclear weapons.
Against a modern opponent, our A-10 force would be gone in days. That’s what its proponents aren’t seeing.
Against a modern peer, the B-1B would be gone too.
So what does the Navy do? Buy more Super Hornets and work on stealthy UAVs?
The Air Force Has No Plans to Restart the F-22 after a Report Found Big Costs
Travis J. Tritten
Washington Examiner
June 21, 2017
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