AND the F-22 routinely smoked multiple F-15’s in the same type simulation.
What is going on?
What happened to F-22?
The F-22 has thrust vectoring, the F-35 does not.
Truthfully the F-35 isn’t meant to be a dogfighter, and truth be told if you end up in a dogfight in current air to air fights, you’ve messed up.
The F-16 was always known to be extremely maneuverable.
“What happened to F-22?”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
That, and drones are going to take over.
It was caught Raptored?
“What happened to the F-22 ?”
I don’t know all of the tactical and technical reasons the F-22 production program was cancelled.
However, I understand that it’s $49,000 cost per flight hour, and needing engine over haul after several hundred hours, was a factor.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-shows-hourly-cost-of-military-aircraft-2014-12
From what I can tell, the US will lose air superiority in the not too distant future due to Russia and China fifth generation fighter jet developments, and having larger numbers of aircraft.
Not surprising, though.
After all, Obola, our Nero II is in the role of Commander-in-chief.
They built a couple of hundred then eventually decided the USAF wouldn’t need a new air-superiority fighter for a couple of decades. And the F-22 AFAIK isn’t much good at anything else. Its not so hot at bombing things, which is most of what the USAF wants to do.
This was a good point, 1991-to today. There still isn’t much technical competition for the USAF, and even the Chinese will still take a decade or so to come up with any significant numbers of comparable aircraft.
The end of the Pax Americana is in sight though.
It seems that it wont take that much to restart F-22 production if necessary.
The F-22 developed some problem with its O2 supply, and they used that to basically halt it.
The F-22 was a world beater. It was not meant for dogfighting either. Usually opposing jets were lit up before, or just after they entered the box.
All of this was predicated on a concept the Air Force had a decade ago. They decided no non-stealth aircraft would be allowed into known missile engagement zones in the next generation of aircraft.
Remember Obama said it was out dated.
The oxygen problem was the primary bug in the system along with the huge cost per unit. Prior to that, the leading edges of the wings had a habit of delaminating and there were problems with the canopy, which I can’t find a reference for right at the moment.