Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

For F-22?

IIRC it was pushed to the rights as the F-35 that it would communicate with were also pushed to the right. No need to upgrade an F-22 to talk to an F-35 that will not be flying yet. Also, MADL has not finished dev so again, not ready for install yet.

FY2013 budget docs make no mention of MADL for the F-22.

I believe the APG-77(v)1 already has different T/R modules, as well as upgraded backend components. I'm sure over it's career, there'll be significant upgrades just like the APG-63 had.

I read recently that Raytheon has been given a contract to start producing GaN based TR modules. Will be interesting to see how it develops, but apparently the potential power output of GaN modules is 10x that of the current GaAs components.

You'd expect more cooling will be required, but radar output could increase significantly in the near future.

I read somewhere that Raytheon hasn't delivered new AMRAAMS to the force in something like a year or two because they are having issues with the rocket motor/fuel in some of their newer models. I don't know if this is true? Apparently it has affected the AIM-120D schedule/integration.

The motors, supplied by ATK, have suffered mass failures when subjected to routine cold temperature tests. The issue has surprised and baffled ATK and Raytheon because the formulation and materials used to produce the rocket propellant fill have not changed – and have been in production, without incident, for more than 30 years. However, by late 2009 reliability problems had emerged with the ATK motors and now Raytheon says it has a stock of around 800 missiles that cannot be delivered. The US Depertment of Defense (DoD) has suspended payments to Raytheon until the rocket issues are solved and Raytheon admits that a final, reliable solution has yet to be found.

This?