Forum: F-22A Raptor

duplex wrote:

A stripped down,less expensive F-22 , will she still be able to compete with Typhoon and Rafale?

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,1 ... 43,00.html

Why wouldn't it be able to? An F-22 with no stealth, APG-77, and ALR-94 replaced by the APG-63V4, a towed decoy and some other ESM system would still be a hell of a plane.

F-16.net Sponsor

duplex wrote:

A stripped down,less expensive F-22 , will she still be able to compete with Typhoon and Rafale?

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,1 ... 43,00.html

The word is that the export F-22 wouldn't have the capability to drop bombs like JDAM otherwise they would be the same as USAF Models. Just a loop hole to get around the law................beside what country is going to purchase F-22's to drop bombs? (i.e. except the US) Confused

Wonder what the FMC rate is right now, I have heard that it flies great, that is once it gets in the air.

If the Air Force had it's way there would not have been a single F-16 ever built much less in USAF service.
It was Congress and and one Jimmy Carter who forced them to buy the viper.
And almost every year that the Air Force submitted it's budget, congress would insert more F-16's than the Air Force wanted.

So when the Desert Storm rolled around, it was not the F-15 that was the primary aircraft of the USAF.
It was the viper and the A-10 did the bulk of the work.

Shades of the Douglas B-18.

This aircraft was purchased in large numbers because the Army was not ready to fund four-engine bomber development, In 1936 the USAAC decided to purchase 99 B-18s the less expensive Douglas B-18 and only 13 of Boeing's overpriced, overcomplex B-17.

Forum: F-22A Raptor

US Goverment must export F-22!