[RFEngineer]

"Nonsense. ...And both of your above claims are already dealt with in posts #145 and #146."

What's a suborbital/orbital pilot gonna do to a aircraft flying a hundred miles below, throw a sandwich at it? He won't have anything else. More likely, he'll just enjoy the scenery.....

Just because we have X-15's, X-20's Space Shuttles, etc, doesn't make them air superiority fighters.

We do not have ANY suborbital or orbital fighters. We just don't have 'em. We may have vehicles capable of said flight, but not fighters. So while the F-22 is a vulnerable program for a lot of reasons, suborbital fighters ain't one of 'em.

[Southack]

"What's a suborbital/orbital pilot gonna do to a aircraft flying a hundred miles below, throw a sandwich at it? He won't have anything else. More likely, he'll just enjoy the scenery....."

Sub-orbital aircraft have the option of dropping down into attack range. The F-22, on the other hand, does *not* have the option of rising up into range to attack sub-orbital fighters (e.g. swarms launched in overlapping waves 15 minutes apart from safely inside the Chinese border immediately prior to initiating their conventional fighter and bomber attacks on Taiwan).

[Southack]

"We do not have ANY suborbital or orbital fighters. We just don't have 'em. We may have vehicles capable of said flight, but not fighters. So while the F-22 is a vulnerable program for a lot of reasons, suborbital fighters ain't one of 'em."

The point is that we are now vulnerable to existing civilian technology being adapted by our enemies. The F-22 can't touch such technology, hardly making it look attractive for our future needs.