Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

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Tim wrote:

Sir, I understand and appreciate your concept of this Multi-missle ship. But this ship would still have the need for a task force with it.. to protect it, resupply it... and so forth. Carriers have that task force with them for a multitude of reasons. not just to support the carrier. Just food for thought.

I would argue that the arsenal ship could be smaller, with less task force structure, which would pay dividends in cost savings. While it is true there would be some support it might not nearly be in the order of what currently structured.

The task force in its current operational form is built for the sole protection of the capital ship, altough these ships could be sent on various individual missions. A carrier by itself, to my knowledge is limited to short to medium defence, relying on AC and the task force for long range protection. If the capital ship can defend itself then why the need.

Lets not forget the human element, the true cost of freedom.

Anyways this is way of topic, my point was that the AF is looking into AC that can preform multiple missions in a less supportive manner. Stealth, hyper-spectral EW, Multi-sensor/role missiles and lasers make the manuevering platform less important.

Long live the F-22 Raptor

Yes long live the Raptor. May it have a life full of mig kills and.......other sorts of kills.

hcobb wrote:

Supercruise, canards, thrust vectoring and a dashboard mounted HUD are all signs of a 4.5 Gen fighter.

A 5th Gen fighter (only the F-35 for now) will kill this hyperkinetic 4.5 Gen fighter as it comes in from any direction and tries to line up the 5th Gen in its HUD.

For a glimpse of 21st Century jet fighter combat see the sales video: http://www.youtube.com/user/F35JSFVideo ... wvnhFgzIKI

-HJC

The F-35's Sensor Fusion will provide the Lightning Pilot with Vastly Superior Situational Awareness. Which, combined with Stealth will make the aircraft nearly unbeatable........ Twisted Evil

Opponents beware! Wink

What will replace the Raptor?

My guess: a space-based detection system coupled with UCAVs armed with latest AAMs - all with human controllers sipping 7-Up in a trailer.

WHY? The next air superiority fighter will be too prohibitively expensive to even come in reasonable quantity. Consider Raptor's 187 a lucky number.

Two Cents

Corsair1963 wrote:

hcobb wrote:

Supercruise, canards, thrust vectoring and a dashboard mounted HUD are all signs of a 4.5 Gen fighter.

A 5th Gen fighter (only the F-35 for now) will kill this hyperkinetic 4.5 Gen fighter as it comes in from any direction and tries to line up the 5th Gen in its HUD.

For a glimpse of 21st Century jet fighter combat see the sales video: http://www.youtube.com/user/F35JSFVideo ... wvnhFgzIKI

-HJC

The F-35's Sensor Fusion will provide the Lightning Pilot with Vastly Superior Situational Awareness. Which, combined with Stealth will make the aircraft nearly "unbeatable"........ Twisted Evil

Opponents beware! Wink

Don't say "unbeatable" too loud someone might hear you Razz

froe wrote:

Yes long live the Raptor. May it have a life full of mig kills and.......other sorts of kills.

Um... I also believe the F-22 to be very capable, but... Please keep in mind any time the Raptor is actually used not only will it KILL Migs and SU's, accompanying these fighter planes will most likely be tens of thousands of other dead people. Could you please use a little verbal tact. My hope is that leaders of other nations recognize the lethality of this aircraft and it is used mostly as a deterrent. Sad

Now that the AF report has "faulted" the pilot in the crash, how about a "Simple" conversion to an unmanned F-35C. Smile

Minimal re-engineering and refueled, unlimited mission time. After flight testing, reengage engineering for upgrading. Worse yet, unmanning of the Raptor. the "almost G-LOC" seems to condem manned fighters. Mad

strykerxo wrote:

Don't say "unbeatable" too loud someone might hear you Razz

The ultimate, most super-duper unbeatable aircraft? Easy, it's the: Gunstar!

Hypersonic, long-range, space flight capable, laser weapons that disintegrates anything, holographic SA displays, built-in shields that can take several direct hits and the Death Blossom!

The Raptor will have no hope and easily this will be it's replacement. The Gunstar is clearly unbeatable and nothing comes close to matching it!

And because it's so effective we can buy only one and still come out on top Laughing

Tinito_16 wrote:

And because it's so effective we can buy only one and still come out on top Laughing

You laugh, but that's exactly the direction we are heading. Each new plane we get is so much better then the last that we need less and less according to the so called experts. I really would like to know from these so called experts at what point do they start saying we can go no lower in the actual number of a/c we have and that no matter how capable anything is, at some point there has to be enough of them to actually be in an area larger then a large county? The next guy that picks a fight with us just may require us to be in more then one tiny spot at once?

Precisely my point.

Hopefully, cheaper planes like F-35s and F-15SEs

Tell you what, this will replace the Raptor. This thing is downright addicting to fly. I love
going up to the park with it.

jb dog - sweet pic. You got any youtube vids of that puppy going through its DT&E flights??

Beeazzz - interesting point. You know.. why even need an Air Force when you got the Navy and 11 Aircraft Carriers instead (or will the QDR's reduction to One MTW reduce USN's Carrier requirement in half)? I.E., why need two redundant tactical airpower deterrences? Then again.. why even need the USN tactical wings themselves when our allies can operate their a/c off our Carriers?? If ya had to defend Europe.. simply sail over a Carrier or two and let French Rafale's (and future euro F-35B) fill the decks for back up. If defending Asia, train some of those Aussie jocks to operate their Super Hornets off-deck (and ditto for any future theatre F-35B operators). To operate 1,700+ future USAF jets supplementing 500+ USN/USMC jets under a 'One MTW' threat Matrix is massively post-cold-war over-kill, right??

So re: what should replace the Raptor: well at this rate, whatever necessary to deter against a 1/2 MTW threat requirement by the next couple QDRs from now?