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Small pico balloons typically range between $12 and $180 while an F-22 Raptor is estimated to be around $200 million ... Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter Thursday to criticize Joe Biden for ordering an F-22 fighter jet to shoot down what may have been a hobby club’s science project off the coast of Alaska earlier last week. Cruz, R-Texas, joked that Biden’s decision to authorize the $200 million fighter jet to use a $400,000 missile to shoot down what may have been a $12 balloon serves as a "powerful deterrence" to high school students interested in creating their own...

Things are getting sporty over the Greta Lakes this Sunday. First it was the FAA closing airspace over Lake Michigan while military planes conducted a patrol, now Canada has closed airspace over Lake Huron due to an “active air defense operation” somewhere over Tobermory, Ontario. ..... Snip..... Rep. Elissa Slotkin @RepSlotkin · Just got a call from @DeptofDefense — our military has an extremely close eye on the object above Lake Huron. We’ll know more about what this was in the coming days, but for now, be assured that all parties have been laser-focused on it from the moment it...

I thought at one time that the F22 Raptor was 'history' thanks our 'criminal' president Bill Clinton. I saw that there is a source for spare parts (under Trump). Having 'multiple platforms' means that our enemies must defend against multiple platforms. Can someone comment on the F22 situation? (without revealing Classified Info)

The video highlights just how much fly-by-wire automation is needed to make the Raptor's super maneuverability a reality. Lt. Col. Randy "Laz" Gordon is an accomplished test pilot, engineer, and F-22 Raptor squadron commander who lent his expertise about all things aviation, and especially about the F-22's incredible fly-by-wire flight control system, to students taking MIT's Private Pilot Ground School in 2019. His lecture is astonishingly accessible considering the complexities of the systems and concepts he describes and will give anyone a remarkable appreciation for just how incredible the super-maneuverable Raptor'sflight control system really is. Gordon covers so much ground...

The U.S. Air Force is finalizing technology requirements for a new fighter jet to enter service sometime in the 2030s. Known as "Penetrating Counter Air," the new fighter will replace the F-22 Raptor and maintain American air superiority in future conflicts. The sixth-generation fighter will incorporate a number of new technologies that for now exist only on the drawing board.

State-run Chinese media is claiming that the People’s Liberation Army has been able to track the U.S. Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters over the East China Sea. While the Chinese report might be easily dismissed as propaganda—it is not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact—it’s very possible that China can track the Raptor. Stealth is not a cloak of invisibility, after all. Stealth technology simply delays detection and tracking. First off, if a Raptor is carrying external fuel tanks—as it often does during “ferry missions”—it is not in a stealth configuration. Moreover, the aircraft is often...

Military Superiority: China's new Shenyang J-31 stealth fighter could be the equal of our F-22s and F-35s, U.S. pilots say, and is just one of the weapons that may thwart America's "pivot" to the Pacific. The J-31, a fifth-generation stealth fighter, will make its official debut at the Zhuhai International Air Show Nov. 11-16 in southern China's Guangdong province. As one U.S. pilot with F-35 experience told USNI News of the J-31 and other new Chinese fighters: "I think they'll eventually be on par with our fifth-gen jets — as they should be, because industrial espionage is alive and well."...

National Defense: The president launches attacks on the Islamic State with two weapons systems that were targeted for elimination by the administration years before their usefulness ended or any replacements were ready. With the decision to launch air and missile strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, in addition to ongoing strikes in Iraq in what is said to be the start of a long and sustained campaign to "degrade and destroy" the terrorist group, President Obama has stumbled upon a revelation: The military whose budgets he's slashed and weapons systems he opposed is suddenly quite useful. As the Washington...

Watching the celebration at the NRA convention over the defeat of background checks was the most nauseating experience of the day. I am not a New York gun control liberal, either. I support a shotgun for home defense, a handgun for limited conceal/carry, and an assortment of hunting rifles to balance West Virginia's exploding deer population (as evidenced by hourly collisions with cars). So, I am hardly out of the mainstream. But, the gun safety debate is B.S. This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all,...

In a bizarre op-ed in The Charleston Gazette last week, journalism professor Christopher Swindell argued that the National Rifle Association “advocates armed rebellion against the duly elected government of the United States of America.” Stirring words, to be sure, but Swindell was hardly done — not even close. He also said that the NRA is guilty of “treason” “worthy of the firing squad.” “To support the new NRA president’s agenda of arming the populace for confrontation with the government is bloody treason,” Swindell charged in his wacky essay. After briefly playing the race card and alluding to the Civil War,...

WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense Inspector General on Monday disputed an Air Force investigation that blamed pilot error rather than oxygen supply problems for the crash of an F-22 Raptor in November 2010. The Air Force grounded the jets — considered the world’s most advanced — for several months in 2011 after reports by pilots that oxygen-supply system failures lead to symptoms including headache, fatigue and nausea. The Air Force report, completed in late 2011, concluded that it was not an oxygen supply problem, but several errors by Capt. Jeffrey Haney, who was killed, that led to the crash...

The Obama Record: The president's defense strategy creates a hollow force and worsens our readiness crisis. Big cuts mean weakening the military's ability to fulfill its constitutional duty to provide for the common defense. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the president's victory lap in Afghanistan on the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of the Navy SEALs "an attempt to shore up his national security credentials, because he has spent the past three years gutting our military." Indeed he has. "He cut the F-22, future combat...

Defense: Pilots who arrived a year ago to train on the fighter of the future are still waiting as safety concerns, cost overruns and questions about the whole program's feasibility mount. The F-35 is meant to be America's next-generation fighter, the heir to the Air Force's F-15 Eagle and the Navy's and Marines' F/A-18 Hornet. Those two aircraft have fulfilled their air superiority and ground-attack roles well, yet many are well beyond their expected life expectancy. The F-35 would fill America's defense needs in an age of budget constraints, we were told. So far it has not been a smooth...

National Security: Portrayed as just a shuffling of priorities, the president's defense cuts reduce our two-war strategy to maybe one war and cross your fingers. Champagne corks are popping from Beijing to Tehran. Imagine a scenario in the not-too-distant future when an Iranian Shahab missile mated with an unexpectedly ready nuclear warhead is test-fired and detonates somewhere over the Indian Ocean. The next day Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as China announces a blockade of Taiwan. The administration's defense cuts, or shifts in priorities as President Obama would have us believe, leaves us woefully unprepared for the unexpected in...

Secrets: Good news of bin Laden's death may be followed by bad news of Pakistan giving China a peek at our downed helicopter. Will we be threatened by our own technology? They are something out of the latest Batman flick, the modified Black Hawk helicopters that were used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound. With a curious hublike housing around the unusually configured rear-rotor, among other things, it was clearly designed to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. When one of the copters clipped a wall in bin Laden's compound, it had to be destroyed, leaving...

Defense: As Russia invests in new weapons and China increases military spending by double digits, the administration conducts a new review looking to cut our nuclear arsenal even beyond misguided treaty obligations. The F-15 Eagle that lay smoldering in the Libyan desert was downed not by hostile fire but by "mechanical failure." It's a perfect metaphor for the current administration's downgrading of national defense from a constitutional imperative to an optional budget item. The F-22 Raptor was designed to replace our aging F-15 fleet, which is older than the pilots who fly them and whose wings are almost literally falling...

F-15 set to be ‘practical if not preferred’ answer to nation’s threats by GENE RECTOR, Staff Writer The Warner Robins Patriot In a concession some months ago to what’s practical rather than what many preferred, Defense Department officials decided to update the Air Force’s fleet of F-15 Eagle fighters rather than buying additional, new production F-22s. It is a move that shines a bright light on Robins Air Force Base where hundreds of workers daily engage in worldwide sustainment of the nation’s F-15 fleet. Budget constraints – then and especially now – drove the decision. The F-15 upgrade – featuring...

Observers may argue whether the recent first flight of China’s J-20 prototype stealth fighter means any imminent threat to U.S. air superiority. But the new evidence of Chinese military aerospace prowess does raise the possibility of a future decision to resume building the U.S. top-of-the-line fighter, the F-22 Raptor, which is nearly at the end of its planned production run. A number of pundits and press reports have recently weighed whether the U.S. will need more F-22s to counter the Chinese fighter if the latter actually evolves into a competitive aircraft and enters production. Focusing on the possible Chinese threat...

The world’s most advanced combat aircraft, the F-22 Raptor, is likely to make a rare appearance outside the US during the upcoming Aero India show in Bangalore next month. This will be the first appearance of the stealth fighter, which is also the only operational fifth generation fighter aircraft in the world, in India and its third participation at an international air show. Final details are being worked out by the US, but sources said that two of the fighters are set to be flown in for the air show that begins on February 9 and will be showcased as...

The top leadership in the U.S. Department of Defense is out of their depth when considering what air domination capability is good to defend America. The F-35, which Mr. Gates has gambled our future on is neither affordable, sustainable, lethal or survivable. And; it was always meant to have the F-22 do the real work of air domination against big threats. Why is this important? America needs the guarantee of air domination. America needs the deterrence of air domination. America needs real air power leaders. We are now on a sure path to throwing this all away. And with that;...