F-22A Foreign sales approved!!!

South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the UK are now allowed to purchase the F-22A Raptor!

http://www.f-16.net/news_article1890.html

This may mean an overall drop in costs, and a far longer production run than it currently is.

It also means the RAF and RAAF can buy these aircraft for air-defense and clearing needs. JASDF and SoKAF can also tangle enemy Sukhois with ease.

While, without a doubt, export F-22As may be reduced in capability in terms of certain features, these "reduced" aircraft will still be lightyears ahead of the next best thing.

Any idea when Israel will be allowed to buy F-22s?

I guess when they decide to cut a check... and when LockMart and the USAF decide on what goes into these export F-22As...

Without a doubt, If anyone purchases these aircraft, they won't see them in service until 2015 at the earliest. But if orders do come in, USAF production may speed up.

The ban is not only lifted for those countries. The article doesn't state it that way. It only states that these countries have shown interest in the aircraft before. Most probably, the ban is lifted for all close allies (NATO countries and very important non-NATO allies). Won't change much in the sale because most countries won't be able to pay for them anyway.

Greets,

If all the hype around the Raptor is accurate an AF would invest around 5 bil for a squadron and support and replace its entire inventory.
Seriously, the unit cost of the Raptor for the US is estimated around 130-150 mil$ (FY2006:147mil) and could come down to around 120 mil should production exceed the 183 planned today. That is trully a lot of money even for Japan especially considering the required support infrastructure.

Yeah, this is quite a big deal... Why waste money on a Typhoon when you can get the performance of the F-22A for just a few million more...

This is also another nail in the coffin for Typhoon export dreams. Should LockMart and the USAF offer an export variant, this would be sure to excite any potential buyers.

List of potentials:
Singapore
Australia
UK
Japan
South Korea
Israel
Canada?

This is also a major political weapon. Selling the F-22A to nations around China is like slapping them in the face with a wet rubber willy. Hehe.

Not quite yet. the House approved it, but the Senate has not. Just yesterday they reaffirmed their support of the Raptor sales ban. So we'll see.

I think we should buy, say, twenty of these to support the 48 (tentative number) F-35s we will probably (hopefully) buy.

Of course, our politicians say that we're 'too small' to have two types of fighters. Last time I checked, we were quite a bit bigger than Israel, South Korea and Singapore, and our neighbour in the East isn't always the nice cuddly bear he's made out to be.

Japan and Australia maybe. I would bet my house the UK never buys the F-22....We can`t afford it. Buying Typhoon instead of the F-22 would not cost "A few more millions". The difference would be considerably more when you take into account the investment already put into Typhoon. Especially infrastructure, manufacture, contracts, training systems, weapons. The Uk wants a multi-role ship, the F-22 ain`t that......

Remember they dropped the "A" from the moniker. Basically, it will never factor in our ever tighter budget.

Yeah... good thing the UK's multi-role ship is the F-35.

Hehe! Unfortunately the F-35 is years away so for now it`s the Typhoon. Full steam ahead on the A2G capability. Quite a few are flying around with LGB`, missiles and gas -bags. The question is how far can they carry them? Be interesting to see what kind of targeting pods will be used....

Why the turn around on F-22 exports? I would have thought foreign sales would be years away. Perhaps they are.

I think the Tranche 3 negotiations just got a lot more interesting!

The annoying thing about the Typhoon A2G capability is that it's a lack of money stalling things. Technically there isn't too much of a problem. Both the items I've had the pleasure of seeing fitted (indeed - fitting) did so with minimal fuss (probably even better than the Harrier or Tonka) and there are quite a few things that can be done to expand capability further.

Sigh, same old story with us in the UK. Cash, or lack thereof.

All of which is a long way of saying that the MoD wouldn't see 'extra capability for a few million more' as a sale point. Plus the F-22 only has a small UK contribution (mostly some avionic systems common to both aircraft) compared to Typhoon/JSF.

Phew, knew I could just about swing it back on topic

Keep in mind the export price of a system is WAY higher than our price. We see the unit price per airplane, whereas a country standing up a new airplane has to also fund spares, tech orders, unique maintenance facilities, training, etc...

snypa777 wrote:Hehe! Unfortunately the F-35 is years away so for now it`s the Typhoon. Full steam ahead on the A2G capability. Quite a few are flying around with LGB`, missiles and gas -bags. The question is how far can they carry them? Be interesting to see what kind of targeting pods will be used....

Why the turn around on F-22 exports? I would have thought foreign sales would be years away. Perhaps they are.

Again, you still have Tornados until the F-35 roles around.

Roscoe wrote:Keep in mind the export price of a system is WAY higher than our price. We see the unit price per airplane, whereas a country standing up a new airplane has to also fund spares, tech orders, unique maintenance facilities, training, etc...

You're right. But then again, the F-22As advantages do seem to offset the cost.

You invest in current and potential capability. Or you invest in an over-glorified 4th gen aircraft.