The F-22: Raptor or Albatross?

The Weekly Standard ^ | 12/9/2010 | Michael Auslin

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

After years of ignoring North Korean aggression and provocations, the South Korean government has stated that any future attacks will result in war on the peninsula. In such a crisis as happening now on the Korean peninsula, one assumes the political and military leadership of the United States would deploy its most sophisticated weapons to the Korean peninsula, both as a warning to Pyongyang and as a capable force to defend against any further aggression in support of our South Korean allies. Yet what was missing from the joint military exercises last week between the U.S. and South Korean navies, in which the U.S.S. George Washington aircraft carrier and several American guided missile destroyers and cruisers joined several Korean ships? The answer: America’s most capable attack fighter, the 5th generation stealthy F-22 Raptor.

[null and void]

It was there.

Nobody saw it.

[Islander7]

Excuse me, excuse me, the Navy does not fly the Raptor. The Air Force does. Duh!

I shot this at the Kaneohe air show in September. Amazing bird!

[The Comedian]

Tomahawks don't risk pilots.

We don't need manned ordnance.

Just manned Executive management.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[Islander7]

I wish there was ‘Like’ button for your comment.

[ThunderSleeps]

Excuse me, excuse me, the Navy does not fly the Raptor. The Air Force does. Duh!

I think you're right. From the brief description it sounds like our involvement in the exercises was primarily Naval. (no, not oranges)

[Ramius]

What a stupid story. Is it still illegal to just kill journalists that do stupid stuff? Can somebody check on that?

There won’t be F-22’s as part of a NAVY exercise, seeing as how they all belong to the Air Force.

But that doesn’t mean the F-22 is any less relevant in today’s battle planning. What part of “air supremacy” is so freaking hard to understand?

[Islander7]

I didn’t follow the news on the exercises closely, but I think it was totally Navy.

The Hawaii Air Guard flies the F-22 and F-15. If the Raptor is needed to pay a visit to the Norks, it can easily be arranged.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Im not buying the author’s assesment of NK’s defenses. The instant those SAMs light up they are toast and it wont take an F22 to do it.

[blackpacific]

I always thought the Marines should have bought the B-2. One Service orders, and the other Service delivers the pizza.

[Ramius]

Heh... maybe not a bad thing.

[DesScorp]

"We need 600 Raptors to ensure Air Superiority. NOTHING touches it. 187 won’t cover a theatre level war."

No we don't. We could build 600 new F-16's with AESA radars, and we'd still be untouchable. The Raptor is steak when you can't even afford hamburger.

[Eldon Tyrell]

Stupid 1 - Navy exercise
Stupid 2 - why expose a stealthy aircraft to enemy data collection?

Juvenile.

[spetznaz]

Honest question - do you believe F-16s with AESA and improved avionics (say the USAF adds UAE type Block 60 Vipers to its inventory) would be able to survive in a 2015/20 environment against a near-peer like, say, China? I personally do not, but I am willing to be convinced otherwise. I do think the Viper is a good and dependable airframe, but it has never been put up against true opposition (Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc do not count ...in much the same way that the success of the SU-27s flown by the Russians for Ethiopia against monkey-model Eritrean's MiG-29s flown by Ukranians should not count). The only case of a true near-peer between the F-16 and another airframe was between a Greek Mirage-2000 and a Turkish F-16 (Greece and Turkey are near-peers of each other), and the result was that the Mirage shot down the F-16. There have been other cases of Greek Mirages painting Turkish Vipers (as well as several of Indian Fulcrums doing the same to Pakistani Vipers), but this incident was the first that actually led to a missile shot (the pilot died).

The 2015-2020 timeframe will see the Asian region having a proliferation of advanced gen-4.5/4++ fighters, AESA RADARs, and advanced IAD SAM networks. Hence my question - while I respect the Viper, and believe against the right opponent it is near-perfect (e.g. dropping a JDAM or in the future SDB and ruining some Jihadi's day), will it really be sufficient looking at its developmental arc (the airframe is basically mature in terms of further development, unless one really went into some of the Viper prototypes like the cranked arrow F-16XL airframe with the avionics from the Block 60 ...and a new airframe like the XL would probably currently cost quite a bunch considering that the F-15SE is expected to go for around US100m) as well as what is happening elsewhere? Do you honestly believe the F-16 would be sufficient?

[PIF]

Why we need more F-22s... a lot more:
Countering the Missile Threat

and see full article:
Air Force Magazine

[WaterBoard]

The US Air Force plans to replace over 700 F-15’s with 188 F-22 jets.

Can anyone spot the problem?

[cranked]

The Air Force is relying upon the F-22 to have a 6:1 or 7:1 combat superiority?

[PIF]

The US Air Force plans to replace over 700 F-15’s with 188 F-22 jets.

Can anyone spot the problem?

—

Only a few, many here of FR cannot figure it out, believing UAVs are the answer, or that F22s are steak we cannot afford, and so on.

Surely as pizza is a food group, if it ever comes to a real shooting war with a near peer, these guys will be screaming at the AF to “do something”...