Lockheed Martin
Flight Global: USAF warms to F-22 Raptor revival proposal
At a time when budget constraints are driving the US Air Force to divest fighter and attack aircraft faster than they can be replaced with the Lockheed Martin F-35, outgoing chief of staff Gen Mark Welsh says it would not be a “wild idea” to resume production of an improved version of the F-22 Raptor air superiority jet.
The Pentagon’s latest aviation inventory and funding plan says the flying branch has “insufficient resources” to maintain the 1,900 warplane level mandated by Congress beyond the current five-year budget blueprint that extends to fiscal year 2021.
The number of combat-coded fighter jets and their associated squadrons “will substantially drop” between 2022 and 2026 before hitting its lowest level in 2031 as the Fairchild Republic A-10 "Warthog" and other long-serving fighters are retired to the boneyard.
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Update: The US may restart production of the world's most lethal combat plane (Business Insider)
WNU Editor: When there is smoke there is fire. This continuing talk of resuming the F-22 is raising hopes .... and in this case it is coming from outgoing chief of staff Gen Mark Welsh.
2 comments:
It puts into question just how extensively these planes are used in the current middle eastern conflict. While i personally would choose to fly a F22 over literally any other aircraft in current service worldwide that remaking it would only decrease its overall effectiveness. Let alone the requirement to totally redesign fundamental instrumentation to a 2016 configuration sporting f35 tech. There is no way it would be cost effective when you already have a 35 production line up, running and producing a range of variants. My advice would be to take the F35 and create a variant that mimics everything about the f22 and fy23 that the f35 lacks.
The f35 can't (mimic) having two engines.
A better option:
https://technologysecurity.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/why-israel-wants-the-f-15-se-silent-eagle-and-what-it-means-for-the-us-air-force/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_F-15SE_Silent_Eagle
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