Posted on 05/05/2016 9:25:42 PM PDT by cba123
Several prominent leaders in the national defense community are calling upon the Pentagon to re-start production of the high-speed F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet which began air attacks against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
Citing Russian and Chinese stealthy fighter jet advances, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., and former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne wrote an OPED in the Wall Street Journal describing the current fleet of F-22s as massively insufficient to address today’s fast-changing global threat environment.
(article continues, please see link)
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Hope nobody who does, comments in such a way which says anything.
But I really, really support this idea. Big time.
This country needs to realign its military policy to the national interest first, and then a discussion of which weapons systems will be best for that new policy will be appropriate.
The F-22, while a fine plane, is not exactly cost-effective for our current policy of interminable engagements with no clear objectives in third world hellholes against camel-riding tent jockeys.
great last sentence.
you’d think, as a novice like me, that planes would be outdated in 30 minutes with the tech advances we have now.
i’m obviously wrong.
abolish f-35
resurrect f-22
upgrade a-10 warthog
Here’s the answer. The newest F-15 with double the missile load. It can be networked like the F-35 can with F-22s. This gives the 22s practically unlimited missiles.
But unlike the 35, the F-15 can defend itself.
Without an F-22 around to work with, the F-15 pilot finds himself in “an F-15”. The beast that has never been defeated air to air. As in never.
22s when stealth matters like day one of a war, then the rest is 15s.
WartHogs; brand new shiny off the line, same specs.
When the 15s light up and go, it is just awesome.
Last week, one of them did a maximum performance take off. He was vertical before the end of the runway and kept on climbing 'till I couldn't see him anymore. Un-freakin real.
It would cost a fortune to bring back production of the F-22. Long story but there’s an article about this out there somewhere. We should do it anyway though.
It is not at all clear that we need more air superiority fighters like the F-22. The Russian Air Force is small and composed mostly of obsolete aircraft, while China’s air force lacks equivalent aircraft. We are probably better off developing an optionally manned new air superiority fighter that incorporates newer technology and has longer ranger than the F-22.
I do not agree with abolishing the F-35.
At all. I think we need both of them. And keep the A-10 as well.
China is going to surprise, a whole bunch of people one day.
We best be darned prepared, when that day comes.
YES!
Our best strategy against China is containment and economic warfare. If, for example, they take Taiwan, we cordon them off and take everything they own overseas until they leave Taiwan.
The base body of the F-22 can be resurrected, with all technological updates thrown in, probably with little trouble.
Bring back the P-51 mustang!
A good pilot could take the F-35...but...that’s not who they’ll be flying against.
“Silent Eagle” offers some pretty good stealth from the frontal aspect. It compromises in other areas, which makes it affordable. Plus, you need a missile truck to complement the limited load-out of the stealthy-F22. Put the F-35’s data-link in both planes, and you have a painter & a shooter.
2) The F-22 in its current form requires extensive maintenance to maintain it's stealth coatings, something that was addressed with the F-35. It is not known if similar coatings used on the F-35 can be retrofitted onto the F-22's air frame. If not then we will just be buying more aircraft that require extensive maintenance at a time when the Air Force is trying to reduce personnel.
3) The above costs do not include modernizing the avionics to the F-35's standard or newer. The major stumbling block for the F-35 is its avionics and software to run it. Modernizing the F-22 would require the same development, and the cost in time and money is unknown.
4) There are 36 early model F-22s that can only be used for training purposes because of their older avionics configuration. The wisest way to increase our combat ready F-22s is to gut and rebuild these 36 Block 20 aircraft to the Block 35 standard so they can have all of the combat capabilities of the 150 current combat coded aircraft.
And while you're at it, upgrade all of the Raptors with little modern touches like a Helmet Mounted Cueing System so that AIM-9X missiles can be used to their full advantage. (something that F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s can do today but the Raptor cannot.)
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