One oft-neglected thing in the F-22 vs. F-35 debate is supercruise. The F-22 is the only current fighter able to exceed the speed of sound without afterburner. It cruises at Mach 1.5 or so.
Here's a nice F-22 pic:
Posted on 04/02/2014 9:21:58 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
If I’m not mistaken I think they destroyed the jigs and tooling for the F 22...
GD went to the Navy and threatened to default on their fixed price contract unless the US renegotiated for more $$.
Dick Cheney told them to pound sand.
A decade later the Navy was still trying to get back the progress payments, which GD got by lying about progress.
The ATF (for example) started with a Request For Information (RFI) in 1981 just 5 years after the F-15 was introduced to line units.
In 1983 study contracts were awarded.
In 1986 Request For Proposals went out.
In 1986 Lockheed and Northrup were selected to further develop and test their designs.
They made their maiden flights in 1990, and the YF-22 won in late 1991.
The first flight of the F-22 was in 1997, and entered operational service in 2005
Even to this day the F-22 has bugs in it... It’s the price of complexity and a limited production run.
With the F-35 it’s because of everyone wanting newer and better stuff added on to an airframe that’s compromised to suit too many roles.
A majority of the cost overruns and delays can be traced back to les aspins decision to force the Air Force, Navy, and Marines to use a common airframe.
“The F-22 could have been the next fighter to do this. So we dump it for a tri-service turd.”
A lot of people have this impression from the trashing it’s received in the media. Instead, it’s an operational fighter being deployed where we really want to intimidate an adversary.
Reflect on the fact that the main reason the F-22 lines shut down is that no foreign sales were allowed - it’s considered too good (and too classified) for even our closest allies. Japan and Australia both wanted F-22s.
Friend of my brother's is an AF/ANG vet with about 1500 hours in the "Hog".
When he was in flight training, of course everybody was a true-blue drinker of the blue-suit koolaid and wanted to fly F-15s and F-16s.
He was totally let down when assigned an A-10 slot, thought it was the next thing to driving a farm tractor.
Six months in, he'd decided that nothing was more fun than working down at treetop level and learning how to target with the Mk.I eyeball......he would not have traded his seat for anything else in the USAF.
They were saying that Lockheed’s quality control proceedures relating to the sub contractors were not “up to snuff”
Lots of “off the shelf” stuff from other aircraft were used to get the F117 flying, not just F16. Later upgrades to keep it compatible with upgrades to other platforms in terms of C3I and LINK systems.
The F117 was in “mod” until it was deactivated, as is the case with just about any aircraft in service.
Iirc Pentagon Wars was about the Bradley. The A-12 book was “$3 Billion Misunderstanding”
The F-111 program was not a total loss since they did quite well as a strike aircraft for the Air Force for many decades, and for the Navy the lessons learned from the F-111 as well as many of the subsystems and design innovations such as the AWG-9 radar, the AIM-54 Pheonix missles, and variable geometry wings were rolled into the F-14 which served the Navy well for 30 years.
It’s one of the few modern AF jets that has to be flown by stick an rudder. It is simply a plane for a skilled pilot, no triple redundant flight management system limiting the control inputs or optimizing the flight.
Uh the Pentagon is the only part of the government that can not only account for it’s money, but is the only part that IS audited, criticized, reformed, and cut.
You must be thinking of the HBO comedy version of it(1990s) , but the book did a whole chapter on the A12, as well as the Bradley.
One oft-neglected thing in the F-22 vs. F-35 debate is supercruise. The F-22 is the only current fighter able to exceed the speed of sound without afterburner. It cruises at Mach 1.5 or so.
Here's a nice F-22 pic:
Ummm, the A12 was a McDonnell Douglas project
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/industry/194472-us-waived-laws-for-chinese-made-f-35-parts
Time will tell if I am correct in my armchair evaluation. I still believe the F-22 is an aircraft we need in large numbers. A plane kicked to the side for one does everything but excels at nothing.
Air Supremacy requires a dedicated fighter, not a multi-role fighter/bomber STOVL carrier plane.
So the DoD better be cranking out YF-23s or we are screwed with the modern version of the Brewster Buffalo - top worst fighter design.
Cost overruns.
Exactly.
Yep, in addition to being a project by Mickey D and GD (A-12 Avenger), “A-12” was also a Curtiss airplane, the Curtiss A-12 Shrike, as well as Lockheed’s A-12 Oxcart.
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