I saw a program just a few days ago which said the F-15 had the best combat record of any fighter, ever.
Maybe the F-15 longeron issue is rearing its ugly head, again.
Just build 2000 modified F/A-18’s and be done with it. Best fighter aircraft EVER. But not the best aircraft ever, that award goes to the SR-71.
These are the idiotic decisions you can expect until we purge the worthless PC politician/generals that were put into many positions under Obama’s purge of the military.
Only a completely worthless and purely idiotic AF officer would propose such a thing with a micro fleet of F-22s.
Such a decision is not based on need or mission whatsoever. Any officer that would propose or defend such a decision should be summarily asked for their resignation.
F-16 ping.
Let’s see. An almost 50 year old design with known quality control issues? Sounds like something that a politician would want to bet the country’s future on.
Let me get this straight.
We have five different fighter airframes: f-15, f-16, f-18, f-22, and f-35.
The most advanced and combat capable for air dominance is the f-22, but we stopped making them.
The most expensive is the f-35, which has already had budget overruns greater than the cost of the f-22’s entire program budget.
The other three existing airframes are in various states of repairs and upgrades, but still represent a force capable of fighting and winning in aerial combat against any air force in the world. It may not be a tough fight, but we have top quality pilots who are better trained compared to any other force we would face.
Five airframes. Each one deemed the most essential. The newest two are filling an anticipated gap that may never exist... and with the last decade of developments in electronic warfare, may be rendered obsolete if ever employed. ... and our biggest enemies, the ones we have been fighting for the past decade and a half don’t have an air force, except for some Radio Shack drones? Something is terribly wrong here.
Kadena is on Okinawa not Japan. Giving Okinawa to Japan was one of Reagan’s worst moments.
The F16 is a good airplane. Terrible loss rate though due to one engine design. But it is no F15 and can’t do it’s job.
“Other priorities”? Don’t tell me. More golf courses for Senior and Flag Officers? More payola for Lochmart?
Replacing Eagles with Lawn Darts is a pretty stupid move.
It’s stupid that they stopped the production of the F-22 at 187 aircraft.
The F-22 is the plane that can fill the F-15 role. Period. Unless F-22 production restarts, better keep the F-15 around.
Sukhoi, thanks for another interesting posts on military subjects.
One thing not stated in the article, but pretty well known in the aviation community is that the elderly F-15 airframe still contains the best “look down” radar in the world. The upgrades will make it even better. Pods on the F-18 and upgraded F-16’s still will not have the ability to see and engage multiple targets as well as the F-15.
Why is this important? In almost every hypothetical scenario, an aggressive adversary will launch a high number of drones and cruise missiles in the opening round. We need to engage and take out those difficult to counter attackers at long range and early in the fighting. The F-15 is far superior to anything else we (or they) have for that crucial task.
I don’t understand all the dissing of F-16s around here.
It’s one of the most versatile all-around fighters ever.
To me it’s equivalent of forgetting the real workhorse B-1 while fainting at the wheels of the overhyped B-2.
The F-15 is a twin-engine fighter jet capable of extremely high speeds and altitudes, while the F-16 is a less powerful but more maneuverable single-engine fighter aircraft.
The F-15 is considered one of the most successful and formidable fighter aircraft ever built, with over 100 aerial dogfight victories and zero dogfighting losses. It can operate in all weather conditions, carry a variety of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons, and is armed with an M61 Vulcan Cannon.
The F-16 is a cheaper, lighter, slightly less powerful aircraft, but was designed with an emphasis on ease of maintenance and maneuverability. Originally intended as an air superiority day fighter, it has become a versatile all-weather, multi-role aircraft and has the same M61 Vulcan Cannon as the F-15.
I worked with the F-15a/b’s in Alaska in the eighties and they were really formidable. And the strike eagles arrived in the early 90’s. It will be hard to see them go with all that power and fire power they packed.
red
Upgrade the A-10’s. Make more of them. The best tank killers aloft.
The F-15 doesn't fill a niche, it defines and owns the whole air superiority show. It has been the backbone of USAF air superiority and will be for another generation.
The F-22 is better overall but the fleet numbers are so small it would be marginally effective in a major air theater campaign.
Way to call it bean counters (yes that is sarcasm).
It is unfortunate that politics in Congress and in the Pentagon have so corrupted the procurement and development of our defense hardware.
There is a desperate need to write realistic performance requirements and then contract them to disinterested builders, without all of the mutual back scratching going on between all of the political actors.
Years ago Japan offered to buy 100 F-22s at a higher than normal price that would subsidize the price America pays for them. The proposal went no where. Just a chorus of “remember toshiba!!!” from the Reps and I think the Dems are just against anything military no matter what the angle.
Its not just the subsidy, the Japanese order would have kept the production going longer and once production stops you have to pay extra to start it again.
And of course there is this generations old problem where people don’t understand how the R&D costs get divided up. The obvious thing to do is list the R&D costs as a separate item and list the cost of the plane on a per plane basis. I have no idea why our politicians have to be so stupid about this.
Airplane effectiveness is always expressed by historians by their kill to loss ratio. Superior quality birds (and their pilots) always have a superior kills to loss ratio but they do get shot down. When confronted by inferior aircraft in similar numbers the odds are in our favor. However, in a real shooting war with the Chicoms/Ruskies we’ll need all the planes we can muster since their strategy has always been based on superior numbers. And while several of our aircraft appear to be redundant we need the total numbers and should only retire a type after it has been totally replaced by a superior aircraft. R&D for next gen fighters will be drone based so the F-35 should be our last manned fighter. I recently saw a demo of one at Nellis...very impressive...very expensive.
For the record, the Pentagon’s military budget “on the record” is 600 Billion.
However, when you factor in black budgets, etc... “off the record stuff” it’s probably over 1 Trillion dollars.
There’s a lot of money that was most likely hidden too. Those $500 hammmers were not just for hammers.