Yeh Baby!
Posted on 12/15/2005 9:40:59 PM PST by Dont_Tread_On_Me_888
MARIETTA, Ga., December 15, 2005 -- Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] F-22A Raptor, the world’s only 5th generation fighter aircraft, surpassed a monumental milestone today when the United States Air Force declared that the Raptor has reached initial operational capability.
General Ronald E. Keys, Commander of Air Combat Command, made the historic announcement at Langley Air Force Base, Va., from a Raptor hangar near his headquarters. “The F-22A fulfills a long quest to bring 5th generation capabilities of stealth, supercruise, and precision to the warfighter today and for decades to come,” said General Keys in an Air Force news release. “If we go to war tomorrow, the Raptor will go with us.”
The Air Force is now capable of deploying and supporting 12 F-22A Raptor aircraft anywhere in the world to execute air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The Raptor is also qualified to perform homeland defense missions when required.
“It’s another great day for our nation, the Air Force and certainly for the Raptor industry team,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics executive vice president and F-22 general manager. “Thousands of workers in 42 states throughout our nation can take great pride in the fact that we not only met the customer’s requirements, but we exceeded these expectations and produced a revolutionary fighter aircraft for our country. The Raptor is the very first supersonic, stealth fighter that incorporates capabilities never before possible in one weapons system and in the words of the Air Force, achieves ‘overwhelming’ performance.”
“This day culminates the great work of a dedicated, nation-wide industry team,” said Ralph D. Heath, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and executive vice president of Lockheed Martin. “Lockheed Martin is honored to be part of this historic milestone and is proud to serve the Air Force and the U.S. government. The American people can rest assured that this industry team produced an aircraft that can meet the challenges our country has to face for the next 40 years, and that provides the ultimate safety possible for the men and women who fly it.”
“This has been a great year for the Raptor program,” said Lawson. “We had excellent news early in 2005 with results of Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E). More good news followed in March when the Department of Defense approved the Raptor for full rate production. The Air Force had a successful deployment of eight Raptors in October to Hill Air Force Base. We look forward to the final report for Follow-On Operational Test and Evaluation (FOT&E) as flying is complete. All of these accomplishments are significant milestones for the program. We’ve completed final assembly on 67 of the 107 revolutionary stealthy aircraft presently on contract. In short, the F-22A program is healthy, solid and on track – with superb production and solid aircraft performance.”
The F-22 Raptor, the world's most advanced 5th generation fighter, is built by Lockheed Martin in partnership with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney. Approximately 1,000 suppliers in 42 states provide parts and subsystems. F-22 production takes place at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facilities in Palmdale, Calif.; Meridian, Miss.; Marietta, Ga.; and Fort Worth, Texas, as well as at Boeing's plant in Seattle, Wash. Final assembly and initial flight testing of the Raptor occurs at the Marietta plant facilities.
107 is a far cry from the 800 or so originally planned. Too much money taken away from the F-22 program for Africa, Palestinians, tsunami charity, New Orleans, New York City and other wasteful, fraud filled charity black holes.
As the SU-30 and other late generation fighters of potential enemies become more common, this will come back to haunt us. A large fleet of 4th generation fighters can gain air superiority over a small fleet of 5th generation fighters.
Russia has the engineers, designers and talent to build a fifth generation fighter. There have been prototypes of 5th generation fighters by Russia that have been in testing, such as the Sukhoi S-37. As the F-22 enters service, Russia will respond. When we designed the XB-70, they countered with the Mig-25. When we came out with the F-15, they produced the Mig-29. When we started serious work on missile defense, they bring out the TOPOL-M with a hypersonic maneuverable warhead, making our missile defense ineffective.
Russia WILL counter the F-22--they also have and will this time also.
Call me an optimist (not always a complement), but the small scale of the F22 program may indicate something larger that exceeds expectations - a secretive 6th generation program.
Joint strike fighter is the next thing. Much cheaper and is vtol too.
Hey, one trick pony. You forgot to mention that the money for the F-22's was directly diverted to force female circumsion upon millions of helpless African children. You're slipping.
Optimist.
'Course the combat capabilities of aircraft are only half the story. You gotta have the logistical support and projection capability. Ivan may have excellent planes and aircrew, but can he send them anywhere in the world on 24 hour's notice and support them over a sustained period of high-tempo ops? I'll take our logistical wizardry over any enemy's anytime.
Possible; the DOD seems to like the idea of UAVs.
I believe that our focus is misplaced. We absolutely need the F-22 technology, as the F-22A could be adapted well for the proposed FB-22 long-range strike fighter-bomber.
However, instead of a 6th gneration fighter, we should be focusing on missile defense and advanced nuclear weapons, bunker-buster tactical nukes, EM weapons, bioweapon defenses, etc. as the lunatics in Iran and North Korea are getting the capability to match nukes with long-range missiles, and China has a far more aggressive procurement program of advanced weapons than the USA does.
Instead, the USA focuses on $15 BILLION to Africa to maintain female genital mutilation, stratospheric global welfare giveaways, $2000 debit cards for welfare groupies, and New Orleans levee $ that NO and the state of LA should be paying for, $21 BILLION for New York City post9/11 with ZERO accountability, etc.
Our focus is warped and twisted. Our enemies' focus is clear and firm.
I bet this fighter will be produced in significant numbers, which is more than planed at the moment. I predict 500+ F22 fighters before the end of its total production run.
The F-22s will be backed up by other weapon systems.
That has been true in the past, and historically, you are right.
What has changed are:
1] lunatics running nations, like Iran and North Korea, and
2] these lunatics possessing (or soon to have) nukes and long range missiles.
In the next ten years, we will see less conventional wars, and the start of regional nuclear attacks.
Sounds grim and frightful, but it is going to happen. Lunatic enemies with nukes renders our conventional, technical and logistical advantages moot.
Such bad policy is not merely foolish, sure-to-fail humanitarianism, rather it is the intentional strategy of our (largely domestic) enemies.
Not going to happen.
Global charity and domestic charity takes precedence over the defense of our nation witht he lunatics runningour government.
Large scale tactical air battles just will not be happening in the future. Nuclear proliferation, and missile proliferation, is too pronounced. We would be far wiser to procure a very advanced, robust ABM system than to produce 500 F-22s. However, if we were to get 500 of them, I would prefer to see about 200 as air-superiority versions and 300 as long-range stealth strike-fighter/bombers.
Can ABM systems potentially blast aircraft out of the sky? They can hit supersonic missles, why not a jet going 300 mph?
Sure.
It was a PAC-3 ABM system that downed the British Tornado fighter in March of 2003 in a friendly-fire accident.
The Russians (and Chicoms) also have plasma stealth, which can be put onto earlier generation fighter planes.
we'll probably pay them to
Yeh Baby!
Why do you think so? The B-2 has been operational for more than 10 years and they havent countered that yet.
300mph? I hope your joking :D
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