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Originally Posted by BillyMagg
Gee Rojo, that is the most "full-on" display I have seen in a long time, I'm surprised the administration hasn't hired you already. General Hawk Carlisle, chief of Air Combat Command calls the F-22 the most tactically important airplane on the planet. The Chinese are presently flying two J-20 prototypes, and one J-31 prototype, so no they didn't get the jump on us, they have NEVER flown a fifth gen aircraft on a single operational mission. The F-35 is for sale to all our partners and allies, Great Britain, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Italy, etc, etc,. Also, the Aussies have never flown an F-15, they operate the Bug and Super Bug, maybe you can WIKI that.
The Marines and Air Force have already stood up operational F-35 squadrons and if I'm not mistaken the USN is reactivating the Grim Reapers to fly their first F-35Cs. Yes, as of tonight, the Raptor remains the most capable fighter aircraft ever flown, it will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. Hope this helps, I hate to see nice guys put up a display like this, but I have to admit, it certainly is a beauty. Air Force Brat- AKA billy magg
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In March 2012, the GAO increased the estimated cost to $412 million per aircraft.[40][41]
I could go on digging. The Aussies talked of trying to get them exported to their AF. That idea was dropped because A: Cost, and B: Insufficient ability for ground attack support.
It's a neat example of what 7.3 billion dollars can buy you. But they are deployed in pairs, or as singles.... because no one can afford to man and service a full squadron of them. They were specifically NOT sent to the ME during the Libya/ Egypt turmoil because of the immediate load-up of costs associated with them.
Yeah, I get the 35 and the 22 confused at times. Either way, I will stand by my assessment of the F22. It spends more time in the service bay than it does in the air, even when compared to the service cost and regimen of other aircraft doing similar roles.
Chained to the tarmac, while the AF flies the older birds because they are still A: More dependable, and B: more economical to operate.
If you want me to be awe-struck that they were able to sneak up on an Iranian F4 with one and tell the pilot to bug out or eject, OKAY. I'll swoon....... nothing like a 1st year lineman smashing Terry Bradshaw on the sidelines.
A $12 million dollar fighter jet with a real pedigree and a 45 year service life..... still going strong.... and we will have to wait and see if the Scraptor will still be airborne in the year 2035 to make a fair comparison.
Well; that, and the F4 has literally hundreds of kills under its' belt when all forces are tallied up over time. In fact, the F4 has more kills flying for other nations SINCE Vietnam than our own F4 fleet had in its' service life flying for us.
And yes, I was mistaken and mixed the 22 with the 35.
It's the 35 the Chicoms copied and sent up before we got our fancy little test hopping. That they stole our blueprints, copied the plane and got it airborne in 1/8 the time it took us, and for probably 1/1000th the cost should tell us something about what we are doing that needs changing. That is not AF specific, nor Marines or Navy. That is a much more elemental screw up, and it should be a real warning for the US that we share too much data and cross production with other nations and when it comes to defense......... if the rest of the world is stuck with AK47's and rocks because we won't share our best fighters with them????? Well, then throw rocks at our planes. Fair enough for me.