Posted on 04/04/2005 3:00:56 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
I hope so. I have colleagues in the aerospace engineering community who ask me, "What is up with the Raptor that it's been in testing for 15 years and isn't qualified?" I can't answer the question and that fact doesn't give me a warm fuzzy.
Agreed, that's got to be a wild ride!
It exceeded its design capabilities by more than 20 times. Designed for .5 neg. G, hit 11.7, and it managed to get the pilot back on the ground in one piece. Impressive.
Besides that, it is quite an irrelevant matter anyway. All enemies of the US assume that we will get it right eventually with our aircraft. Other countries pay much more attention to what we get right, than what we get wrong.
Wrong.
There is a deterrence component to our forces that will not be ignored. There is a benefit to our adversaries understanding that they will almost certainly lose any conflict against our forces, so they had best adhere to our desires before the shooting starts.
Wars are won before they are ever fought.
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