Building New F-22 Raptor Fighters Would Be a Giant Mistake

National Security Journal ^ | 8/7/2025 | Caleb Larson

[whyilovetexas111]

Restarting the F-22 Raptor production line is a “pipe dream” that is not feasible or strategically wise. The industrial base, including the assembly line and specialized subcontractors, no longer exists, and a 2017 Air Force report estimated a restart would cost a staggering $50 billion. Furthermore, the F-22’s 1990s-era technology is now obsolete and would require an extensive and costly redesign to remain relevant.

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TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: defense; f22; military; usairforce; whyiloveblogpimps111

[whyilovetexas111]

This is a really bad idea. The F-22 had 486 CPUs in the platform. If you know what I am talking about you get it.

[Magnum44]

Upgrading electronics in A/C is not something that hasnt been done before. But at this point any Raptor restart would require a redesign anyway. It would not be the same A/C.

[Antihero101607]

486, as in like a 486/66 MHZ like my dad had in our home computer from the early nineties until 2000?

When I worked the Support section my last year I. The Air Force we had a piece of engine test equipment that ran on Dos, I was probably one of a handful of people to that was old enough to have worked with it.

[allendale]

Stealthy, unmanned, sophisticated drones is the future of the Air Force and naval aviation.The silicon chip and the spawned derivative technologies has changed the nature of warfare.

[CodeToad]

Satellites have 386 CPUs, but they work.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "This is a really bad idea."

In the moment there seem precious few good ideas. "The industrial base, including the assembly line and specialized subcontractors, no longer exists...."

But a clear and present danger is not so clearly seen.

$ 37.2 TRILLION in debt and rising all the time

[sloanrb]

You can thank Prez Obozo for ordering all the tooling and design info for the F22 destroyed. He didn’t want any more to ever be produced.

[wny]

$150-million for a single fighter plane. Makes one long for the good old days when $25-million bought a battleship.

[Rio]

Is the Pentium upgrade available?

[SaveFerris]

(You can thank Prez Obozo for ordering all the tooling and design info for the F22 destroyed.)

Look at Barack Hussein Obama as a Muslim Foreign Agent seeking to destroy America from within and then everything he did, didn't do, dragged his feet on ALL makes sense

[Pontiac]

When I worked the Support section my last year I. The Air Force we had a piece of engine test equipment that ran on Dos, I was probably one of a handful of people to that was old enough to have worked with it.

Want to talk antiquated computers?

We had Alan-Bradley PLC 1 controlling several systems at my former employment place. The system was launched in 1970 I started working with it in 1983.

I had to learn to program the system myself because the last class offered was given the year before my hire.

We submitted proposals to replace one of the systems to management 3 time over 20 years before it was finally approved. The company was paying outrageous prices for uncertified replacement I/O cards and power supplies every year and suffering weeks of down time before they finally approved the system's replacement.

One system was finally replaced in 2015, another was still in service in 2022 when I retired.

[T.B. Yoits]

From the article: ...the F-22’s 1990s-era technology...

While the F-22 was first put into production in the 1990s, it utilizes 1980s technology.

[bosco24]

You fell for a straw-man argument on rebuilding the F-22.

Put up a stupid idea and then spend pages explaining why it is a stupid idea.

It is a stupid idea that no compedent person would propose or argue for.

[T.B. Yoits]

...we had a piece of engine test equipment that ran on Dos...

There are still programs that run certain functions on DOS behind a Windows interface.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Why could they not build the air frame and not include modified F35 avionics? The F16 has been in production for years being updated since the 1970s.

[Seruzawa]

Blah blah blah..
Raytheon/DoD mouthpiece.

[Mariner]

Yet ANOTHER straw man constructed by this publication to get clicks.

Nobody in the Pentagon or Congress is proposing to restart F-22 production.

Proving once again this publication is not a serious national security offering.

[NorthMountain]

$150-million for a single fighter plane. Makes one long for the good old days when $25-million bought a battleship.

Thank you for once again illustrating the deliberate debasement of the "US Dollar" ...

[ken in texas]

- a piece of engine test equipment that ran on Dos -

Ah, the good old days. Around 1975 or so a new Burroughs mainframe arrived in the computer room at Gunter AFS. We couldn't wait to try it out --- it had 512 KB of memory. Wow!!

[throwthebumsout]

I thought that the 6’th gen NGAD/F-47 - which is scheduled to enter operational service soon - was the F-22 replacement.