An F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team pilot flies behind a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 465th Air Refueling Squadron assigned to Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, March 8. 2021. The F-22 team from Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Virginia, is assigned to Air Combat Command and received fuel from the Okies during their flight back to their home station after performing at an air show. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mary Begy
19FortyFive: F-22 Raptor Retirement? Why the Air Force Wants To Dump 33 Stealth Fighters
The Air Force Wants to Retire One-Fifth of Its Irreplaceable F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighters – Seventeen years after it entered service, the F-22 Raptor remains the most capable air superiority fighter on the globe, combining traditional flight performance characteristics sought in non-stealth aircraft, while boasting a smaller radar signature than stealth warplanes before and since.
Unfortunately, the F-22’s operating costs and maintenance availability also reflect its premium status, as does the fact that the Pentagon procured only 187 operational aircraft, resulting in even higher per-plane costs than originally intended.
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Update: Air Force wants to send Tyndall’s F-22 jets to the boneyard (Air Force Times)
WNU editor: It all comes down to money. Or more to the point .... not having the money to maintain such a fleet.
9 comments:
The government pays for a lot. They pay not only for the product but a lot for the technical data. They also pay for maintenance and repair. Yeah, they pay for maintenance, obviously.
A piece part can have a cracking problem, but the prime contractor cannot or will not address (Will not due to being a large ponderous organization). Enlisted maintenance come up with a fix and due to contractual agreements, the fix has to be torn out and then the government has to wait and get billed more for the contractor to "fix" it".
Everything the government costs more. It costs more across the board. For travel they pay for refundable tickets every time.
Between Congress going through a few iterations of making sure there were no economies of scale, government contracting (data rights, etc and the contractor being large, slow and pigheaded, stick a fork in it.
The good thing is the government has the data rights or should have them. They can build on that and not have to repay.
Keep the to replace the upcoming combat losses that will occur against the Chinese or Russians, or both.
We all know the F22s will be mothballed. If Obama gets his way, they will be mothballed in Hurricane Alley
Donatr. Use to create new Ukrainian Air Force.
Could the Ukrainians afford it? Do you know what the program cost is? Assuming that the US government has the data rights free and clear could the Ukrainians afford to maintain the F22s and what about the potential loss of technology? I assume as more years go by there is precious few tech secrets that others do not have or cannot figure out.
The B-2 faced similar scrutiny. Super high maintenance and operating costs. "Let's retire them!"
They found a solution in using immaculately maintained, 44 year-old F-5's for use in keeping the pilots current and for mission training. Maybe the Pentagon would consider a similar program for the Raptor fleet.
We will never sell the F-22 to anyone even our allies. Not even the Ukrainians will ever get this. Anyone wishcasting this is delusional.
The reason for the mothballing is because it's hugely outdated and doesn't incorporate open systems architecture especially with a possible new fighter called NGAD coming this decade or next.
NGAD 8 to 13 years out. At least it is not as bad as fusion, which is always 50 years off.
NGAD is a lot closer than you think it is with digital engineering. They've already flown a test aircraft. There's no point to sustain F-22's as more F-35's comes online so money can be redirected to speeding up production of NGAD.
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