Jura The idiot
General
well until Yesterday at 9:07 AM
I thought Raptors had been traded for 'Swiss Army knife' by which I mean F-35 A+B+C but what do I know LOL
F-22 Raptor Thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I'm rather certain the "Swiss Army Knife" was likely a much more important part of the equation than the B-21, as the "Swiss Army Knife" was draining resources with that "Giant Sucking Sound",, and no, there's NO WAY the F-35 is a more important airplane than the F-22, unless we factor in all of our amazing partners..
Specifically the F-35 is a "Pork Barrel", reach in and grab some of the action, the F-22 was "tapped out" as far as pork, and was becoming a very lean program, with quoted Raptor pricing at about 135 Million per copy..
according to loss reports generated by Capt Haney's loss, that's where they valued his aircraft..
so you're right, General Swartz is making a case for why they didn't defend the Raptor, and trying to put a "smiley face" on it, by claiming they got the B-21,,, which in my opinion isn't near the airplane the Raptor is, and has a very low overall payload compared to the B-1 and B-2..
I am certain that a stealthy "cruise missile" would be far more effective at performing the B-21's mission than the B-21,,, but Senator's and Congressmen love "BOMBERS!".... they have far less comprehension in general when it comes to 5 Gen aircraft,, but they're ok as long as they get some "goodies" for their district, so they can blow their own horn, and proclaim, "look what I did??"...
In truth, General Moseley lost his job as well as the Secretary for defending and fighting for the Raptor, kinda like the German Luftwaffe General who was fighting to get the German Air Force the F-35,,, the F-35 will kill Typhoons all day long, as well as everything else the bad guys attempt to fly,, but its still no F-22!
Jura The idiot
General
from what I figured, the idea behind F-35 was 'one size fits all'
soon we'll see how valuable that idea has been
and the wisdom of that is we have three very capable and distinct aircraft, the each meet the needs of their respective services,,, but those three different aircraft share at least some commonality in the airframe, wing spars, root ribs, main ribs, bulkheads, computer, and powerplants,, and that my friend saves big bucks from beginning to end..
Now the F-22 is the Big Dog, and it will kill anything, and everything, but its little sister is the F-35, and the F-35 is very firmly in the number 2 spot, it will reach out and touch the bad guys from a LONG WAY off. NOW almost everyone on the SDF is going to disagree with me, and that's fine, I do know what I'm talking about, and I do have an idea where each of our competitors are in a big picture view,, not saying I would call it "air dominance", but "air superiority" is a very safe assessment,, but for those of you who want to disagree, help yourself, I'm very confidant of what I do know, and what I don't know, as "Dirty Harry" would say, a man's got to know his limitations!
Jura The idiot
General
Brother why there're so many (about one third) Raptors 'not combat coded'?
That's an excellent question Master Jura, and the simple answer is that those 60 or so Raptors represent the initial test and production aircraft. As you have lamented how expensive it will be to "bring up to spec" those initial F-35's, these Raptors fall into that same category, many dedicated to the test fleet,(remember, there had never, and probably will never be another 5 Gen aircraft with the Raptors performance)... these aircraft were never combat coded because we anticipated a full fleet of 700+ aircraft, and they were dedicated early on to test and training!
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Those are also war reserve, kept ready in the event of loss of a combat coded machine.
Jura The idiot
General
how long would it take to 'combat code' a machine (if attrition reserves were needed, not now)?
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
That was however one specific machine. a larger conversion could go faster and cost less or take longer and cost more.
The None combat coded machines are kept flyable though.
Jura The idiot
General
how was it? (it's May now)