Eric Palmer at Worldwide War Pigs points to a new report by the Air Power Australia think tank, informing the U.S. Air Force that it needs 500 to 600 F-22 stealth fighters instead of the 187 currently paid for and the additional 60 the air service is likely to get.
Oh God, I can’t hold it in any lo– Ah ha ha ha! Ha ha! Tee hee. Ooh …
Okay, sorry. Back the APA report. Its reasoning is sound: Against the latest air defenses
the F-22A Raptor will … have to perform the full spectrum of penetrating roles, starting with counter-air, and encompassing SEAD/DEAD, penetrating ISR and precision strike against strategic and tactical targets. The B-2A fleet can robustly bolster capabilities, but the small number of these superb aircraft available will result inevitably in very selective use. … [A] block replacement of the ~600 strong F-15A-E Eagle/Strike Eagle fleet one-for-one with F-22A Raptors would provide the proper fleet size.
Hee hee, ha ha. Ah, hah hah hah! Six hundred Raptors? Oh my God, that’s hilarious!
Do we need that many $140-million F-22s? Absolutely, positively yes. Do we need them more than we need nearly 1,800 slower, lighter, less stealthy, $80-million F-35s? Yes! Is there any way that the Pentagon would ever fund a Raptor fleet that size?
Unequivocally NO.
(Photo: me)
Related posts:
Off-topic, David… I still say you need to put together a coffee table book of your photography in war zones. It is pretty good. -E
This is actually something kind of confuses me, I come to this from an interest in Foreign Policy and History (I’m a Senior Year History Major in College), so I’m not all that familiar with details of air power and what not.
The question I have (finally) is are the F-22 and F-35 meant to fulfill the role? From what I know (which is admittedly quite little) it doesn’t seem like they are. They appear to be, to me, complementary to each other rather than mutually exclusive. Am I wrong about this? Could some one give me a better idea what the F-22 and F-35 are for?
Thanks.
CharlesWK:
The F-22 is designed to shoot down other airplanes and destroy air defenses. The F-35 is designed for routine bombing of buildings and troops. Basically, the F-22 is a fighter, the F-35 is a bomber.
But guys, the F-22 was Starscream from the Transformers. I mean, why would we not want giant robot fighters?
[quote]The F-22 is designed to shoot down other airplanes and destroy air defenses. The F-35 is designed for routine bombing of buildings and troops. Basically, the F-22 is a fighter, the F-35 is a bomber. [/quote]
I would disagree with that David. The F-22′s Primary role is that of an interceptor / Fighter with a secondary role for Strike / Attack.
The F-35′s Primary role is still that of a Fighter (Fleet defence) with a secondary role for Attack / CAS.
Both aircraft are designated swing role although i would agree that the F-35 will be fulfilling it’s swing role duties far more often than the F-22.
We could have 600 Raptors if we find the brass ones to cancel the F-35 program and backfill the fleet with new F-16s.
APA didn’t intend it this way, but the article amounts to a devastating attack on the Raptor and its underlying logic. They were never going to get 600 of these planes and they knew it. They justified the smaller force structure they knew they were going to end up with by arguing that each plane was “much more capable” and thus the aggregate power was greater.
Trouble is, no matter how exceptional a plane might be, even if it’s a mechanical Superman, it can only be in one place at a time. The US has worldwide commitments and requires a force structure of more than 187 fighters. The USAF really DOES need 500-600 “heavy” fighters deployed worldwide and its leadership, for whatever reason, deliberately set itself on a course to ensure that it wouldn’t have them.
It then compounded the error by carefully programming the F-35 so that it would be inadequate in air-to-air combat. The USAF learned this much from the F-16/F-15 development cycle: never let your light fighter program be successful enough to threaten the heavy fighter program. The first and only meaningful specification of the F-35 was that it not be a viable alternative to the F-22. Mission accomplished, and now the USAF is screwed.
What does the Raptor do against likely adversaries that the F-15 doesn’t? Are F-15s actually going to get blown out of the sky in an engagement? Same question for the F-35 vs F-16. Why can’t we just get along with F-16s and F-15s for another two decades?
[...] According to the firebrands at the Air Power Australia think-tank, the Lockheed Martin F-22 stealth fighter, today the priciest U.S.-made fighter at around $140 million per new copy, will actually cost less than the supposedly cheaper F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, built by the same company and intended to be a cost-effective “75-percent” substitute for extra F-22s. On JSF costs, our cost estimating models have the unit procurement cost (UPC) of the Block 3 configuration of the F-35A CTOL JSF, in 2014, costing some US$168 million a copy. Our analysis shows that the UPC of the F-35A JSF (Block 3 Configuration) will cost as much, likely more, than the F-22A would cost in 2014. Analysis of the data, using standard cost estimating and risk analysis protocols, has been showing this as likely to be the case since late 2003. [...]
[...] Related: Russian Super-Fighter Not So Scary In 2014, the F-35 Might Cost More than the F-22 600 F-22s? Hilarious F-35 jumps the shark Raptors in Japan New Russian fighter to challenge F-35 The amazing shrinking air force No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
[...] Related: Getting the Most from Your New F-22 F-22s to Darfur? Not so Fast … Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority More fighter-jet hyperventilating Growler Chomps on Raptor A U.S. Navy F-22? Don’t Hold Your Breath Nearly 100,000 Jobs Depend on the F-22? Not Really Only 60 More Raptors? Everybody Panic! Russian Super-Fighter Not So Scary In 2014, the F-35 Might Cost More than the F-22 600 F-22s? Hilarious F-35 jumps the shark Raptors in Japan New Russian fighter to challenge F-35 The amazing shrinking air force No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
[...] Related: Boeing Unveils New “Stealthy” F-15 Getting the Most from Your New F-22 F-22s to Darfur? Not so Fast … Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority More fighter-jet hyperventilating Growler Chomps on Raptor A U.S. Navy F-22? Don’t Hold Your Breath Nearly 100,000 Jobs Depend on the F-22? Not Really Only 60 More Raptors? Everybody Panic! Russian Super-Fighter Not So Scary In 2014, the F-35 Might Cost More than the F-22 600 F-22s? Hilarious F-35 jumps the shark Raptors in Japan New Russian fighter to challenge F-35 The amazing shrinking air force No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
[...] Related: Analysts: Buy Fighters, or Die Boeing Unveils New “Stealthy” F-15 Getting the Most from Your New F-22 F-22s to Darfur? Not so Fast … Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority More fighter-jet hyperventilating Growler Chomps on Raptor A U.S. Navy F-22? Don’t Hold Your Breath Nearly 100,000 Jobs Depend on the F-22? Not Really Only 60 More Raptors? Everybody Panic! Russian Super-Fighter Not So Scary In 2014, the F-35 Might Cost More than the F-22 600 F-22s? Hilarious F-35 jumps the shark Raptors in Japan New Russian fighter to challenge F-35 The amazing shrinking air force 6 Comments so far Leave a comment [...]