Forum: F-22A Raptor

Elite 1K Joined: Aug 19, 2004 - 09:19 AM Posts: 1092

Yeah... nobody is saying the Super Hornet is a terrible aircraft. It's simply not a 5th generation air superiority/dominance fighter. It was never designed to be.

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sferrin wrote:

NATF was suppose to be it. One of the reasons the YF-22 was chosen over the YF-23 is that the naval version was apparently further along in the design process. So they chose the YF-22- and then cancelled the NATF.

Myth. The USAF source selection criteria made no mention of a Naval variant...that wasn't a USAF requirement. Why would the USAF pay to build a Navy fighter? Nothing insidious behind that statement, just that dollars are tight enough without paying for something you don't need just for somebody else...

Now if the ATF/F-22 had been a joint program, of course. But it wasn't. JAST/JSF was the joint version from day one. Navy was reaping the benefits of the F-22 development efforts in another platform.

Roscoe has it right. NATF was a Dept. of the Navy inquiry/request. Not part of the original AF request.

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Forum: F-22A Raptor

Is the F-22A a case of too much to soon?