Posted on 06/21/2017 3:42:08 PM PDT by Mariner
The Air Force has provided the House a classified report on restarting the F-22 Raptor fighter jet program, congressional staff said Tuesday.
The House Armed Services Committee received the report two days ago, but staff said it was still being reviewed.
House lawmakers ordered the report last year to determine what it would take and how much it might cost to begin producing the high-tech, fifth generation aircraft again.
Congress voted in 2009 to stop purchasing the F-22 stealth fighters after just 187 were made, hundreds less than the Air Force had planned.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I think the F-35 is assembled in Fort Worth, TX and the F-22 was assembled here in Marietta, GA, right down the road from The Big Chicken.
“aerial combat will be done from standoff range in the future, if at all.”
There will be aerial combat, just no dogfights.
The best combo, and one that is in test now, is using the F-35 super-advanced RADAR, even more advanced than the F-22 or any other aircraft in the world, as a datalink between it (control) and 1/2 dozen UACV...with precision weapons and missiles.
The F-35 pilot just has to LOOK at the displayed target and push a button to take it out.
And everything is stealth.
That's the sort of thinking that got the F4 Phantom designed without a gun. I also recall that before the first Gulf War, for years the talk was there was no reason to build main battle tanks like the Abrams and German Leopard. Then one of the biggest, if not the biggest, armor battle took place.
Trying to predict the battle needs of the future is more than a little bit difficult.
Mark
F-22 Raptors were built in Georgia. F-35 moonpigs are made in Fort Worth Texas.
You must be talking about this F-15 2040c.
Better than any fighter from another country. Bar none.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a25656/eagle-2040c-next-generation-f-15/
It was a blast seeing them mock dog-fight with Kadena's F-15s - turning radius of the Raptor is insane.
I was stationed in the Azores when the A-10 stopped there on its first deployment to Europe, January 1979. I think there were fourteen A-10s on the pads at the end of the runway beyond the Naval Air Hanger under guard like a SAC base. Feeling old here.
I seem to remember some Army Special Forces on horseback in Afghanistan.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/us/afghanistan-horse-soldiers-memorial/index.html
It'll be expensive retooling up for production again, but then, where are you going to find a better airplane than the F-22?
Restarting production would also allow for improving on the original manufacturing and design with all they've learned in the field since obama shut it down, including any design changes to counter aircraft that didn't exist originally.
So, as good as the current F-22 is now, imagine how much better the "new" F-22 would be!
Should give US absolute air superiority for a couple decades or so with the numbers to back it up.
Used to not like it before Gulf War I. Now they luv it.
Those things were then and this is now.
Yes, once upon a time they did some really good work but they are making a career out of the F-35. A few of those are not Lockheed but General Dynamics legacy.
They lost my respect when they lobbied against their own aircraft, the F-22, to save that money for the F-35 because it has or had a higher profit potential. And that is what they have really screwed up.
I kow people who began post military careers working on F-35 code and have since retired a second time and are now off to yet another job.
The F-35 is a poorly managed program.
I know Army infantrymen love the A-10 and it would probably have a great home there… unfortunately there's this Memorandum of Understanding from 1952 which is treated as though it were law placing a 5000 lb limit on fixed-wing aircraft for the Army.
“I’d think the A-10 could be made carrier capable though?
Yup. . .not done yet because they can’t figure out how to mount the tail-hook backward. . . bada-bing, I’ll be here all week, try the veal.
;-)
The F-22 is 30% built by LM, with Boeing building about 30% as well.
“There will be aerial combat, just no dogfights.”
Famous last words by brilliant minds that decided there will no longer be dog-fights so the F-4 was initially built without a gun.
That was 50 years ago.
To whom?
Before scolding anyone and giving benefit of doubt that someone may simply be ignorant I must ask in what era someone was educated?
The examples during WW2 are manifold. Even during the cold war. Ford and several others for example built Consolidated Liberators. GM built TBMs. Goodyear built Corsairs. Packard built rolls Royce Merlin engines. Underwood and Remmington typewriter built M1 Carbines. Etc. Manufacturing under license and for the gubment of gubment owned patents so to speak was very common.
It should happen again considering how badly lockheed have screwed up and how they have raped the taxpayer on the F-35.
Still applies today, that’s why I brought it up, and is reminiscent of “everyone” agreeing that some tactic or skill is irrelevant.
At Red Flag and Maple Flag, the adversary does penetrate to the merge and the pilots need to have those dog-fighting skills honed otherwise Snoopy will kick their butt.
I’ll talk replacing pilots when we mastered an unmanned tank capable of operating in a complex, multi-bogey two dimensional engagement environment, at 25kts and 1-G. . .and that environment is profoundly easier to do than flying an unmanned super-sonic platform in a hyper-G, 360 degree threat and engagement environment.
Heck, I might even consider it if you put your family on an unmanned airliner headed to Aunt Edna’s and don’t give it a thought.
Right, because trying in war is what is really important.
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