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.
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.
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.
YES!
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.)
Heck, yes.
Best air superiority fighter ever made... far better than F-35s in that regard. It was stupid to shut down the line at 185 planes and not recover the R&D costs over a longer period, more planes.
Of one thing plans circa. 2000 (themselves based in the strategic outlook of the 90s) visualised the USAF having a core of 400 F-22 and 1000 F-35s, right now. (Fortunately the world has turned out more peaceful than anticipated then, Right?).
The article characterises the F-35's air-to-air as "strong but brittle".
If the data link is updated you're good. But lose the data-link in any other fourth/fifth gen fighter, you still have an effective bird, lose it in an F-35, you are in an F-105 Thunderchief.
Solution: restart F-22 line, or build the F15-2040C