Posted on 12/13/2005 3:48:12 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
December 13, 2005 - The U.S. Air Force plans to change the designation of the F/A-22 Raptor to "F-22A" in the near future according to an article on DefenseNews.com.
According to an article by Gopal Ratnam and Michael Fabey on DefenseNews.com, the U.S. Air Force is changing the designation of the F/A-22 Raptor to F-22A. The move was announced on December 12 by Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley in a speech to the Air National Guard senior leadership conference and is expected to be officially announced by the Air Force in several days.
In the article, Loren Thompson, an analyst for the Lexington institute, is reported to have said that the decision was "unanimous among Air Force and senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld" and that "Air Force officials were feeling a "little expansive" after the Raptor survived attacks during the QDR debates; they decided they didn’t need the extra “A” to persuade the administration and Congress to buy the airplane."
By shedding any pretense to the ground attack/CAS role, I hope this move also prolongs the A-10 program by default.
Looks like they just dropped the "/" and moved the "A."
For those of us without a clue whats the significance..
At least it was better than F'n/A
My thoughts exactly. The A-10 is unequaled in the fixed wing ground attack role. Hopefully Air Force brass have gotten over the fact that its not fast and sexy.
A=Attack (ground)
Yep. The A-10 was supposed to be retired in the early '90s. It's performance in Gulf War I changed that. The Air Force brass have a real fetish for pointy-nose jets that go Mach 2, but that isn't always the best way to go in design.
And what is the meaning of the "A" in "F-22A"?
LOL
The Air Force added the "A" ("F/A-22" as opposed to "F-22") and started doing test flights for ground attack options because they were afraid of the program being killed. They figured a dual-role fighter/attack jet would survive Congressional reviews better. Sure the F-22 can drop bombs but that was not what it was designed for. It's mission is air superiority, ground attack was not a consideration, and adding the "A" looked like a stupid lie added as an afterthought even if do-able.
It means "ass-whoop".
I wonder how many of our tax dollars went into taking that letter out of the title.
"Model"...I think the F-18 is on the "J" now...
Meaning it is the first evolution of the F-22 Model...if they (manufacturor) makes significant structual/avionics improvement on a new version of the F-22 it will be the "B" model...so on and so forth.
I share the same love of this work-horse. However, we could probably develop a much better variant these days. I can't understand why the AF wont invest in a replacement. If they the think the JSF is a replacement for the "Hawg" they are sadly mistaken.
Then my "F/A-22 - Langley AFB Virginia" T-Shirt will be a collector's item!
That's probably the biggest secret of all!
The Air Force simply doesn't want to use a Navy designation (F/A) for the airplane. It's an inter-service rivalry thing.
A select few aircraft do certain things better, but as a package deal, nothing comes close in overall firepower, loiter time, survivability, system redundancy, and the morale depleting impact of it's mean, ugly looks. As much as I hate to think it, I have always believed that the cranked wing was deliberately influenced by the Ju-87.
All the Air Force has done is removed the A(Attack)designator. I guess they believe its better to assure the congress that the Plane is an Air Superiorty fighter rather than a fighter bomber.
Just because they removed the A(Attack)designator does not mean the jet won't be capable of dropping bombs.
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