Re-production of F-22 Raptor

[kosmo92]

Hi in article U.S Congress looks for re-starting the F-22 Raptor program.What do you think?.Personally I support re-production because USAF have only 183 F-22,it's not get enough.F-35 is not superb plane like F-22 , Maybe president Trump restart production and Raptor came back for US air bases in Europe and Asia for constant presence.

Edited January 2, 2017 by vokin

[PFunk]

It would cost more to restart a production line in the F-22. Not only that, the hardware that goes into the F-35 is far more advanced than even the Raptor.

[tonipm99]

The new F-22s could be built as an upgraded variant, with systems from the F-35. Since the airframes would be brand-new, all incompatibility issues could be fixed. Yes, the cost of all this would be astronomical, probably tens of billions, and the result might be a very different F-22 (internally), but it'd allow the new crafts to have the "software updates" that the F-35 can have, which as far as I know the F-22 doesn't have. Maybe the reduced cost of future upgrades would make the development of this new variant worth it.

 

Or maybe they could just build new F-22As as they are, which in my opinion would be a waste of money,

[+JediMaster]

I believe they cannot build F-22s as they are now because many of the parts are obsolete now, the problem of making a "cutting edge" plane that depends on electronics so much.

Pretty much they'd need to build an F-22B with guts like the F-35 for the most part, and yes it would cost a lot to restart production. The only way to do it that makes sense is to build a LOT more, at least another 200. I don't know if there is the will to do that.

[+Gepard]

The question is, wheter you want to have a high tech toy for a fist full pilots or a reliable weapon, which you can build in large numbers and which is usefull on real combat.

Dont missunderstand me, the F-22 and F-35 are innovative and outstanding planes, but they does not really fit the needs of the military in field.

A restart of the A-10 production would have had a much better effect in the last years than all F-22 together.

The F-22 is like a Battleship in the 1930th, great, outstanding, techologically the best of the best, but not really usefull in fight.

Why i say this? The enemy today are terrorists like the IS. How usefull was the F-22 in fighting the IS?

The enemy of tomorrow will be rather China than Russia. And China you cant beat with a fistfull of high tech fighters. You will need masses of planes, but if you set your cards on the overpriced F-22 or F-35, then you will never get enough planes, because you cant pay them.

[+JediMaster]

Your advanced knowledge of the future is quite impressive.

 

Could you tell me the lotto numbers so I can quit my job?

[Toryu]

Jedi, Gepard has a point: The US likes investing in hugely expensive projects that at the end of the day don't really do much except creating shareholder value (and even that is questionalbe).

Look at SDI, look at the A-12, the initial F-22 program and now look at the F-35. All that stuff is technologically amazing, but not needed right now.

Gone is the fiscally conservative way of thinking.

 

There is no war to be fought anywhere, where F-35s or F-22 bring the edge - the only wars where that'd be the case is a confrontattion with China or Russia, which I can't see for economic reasons (and more convenient means of battle than going full 20th-chentury-hot war).

 

Now you'll throw me into the fire, but the whole F-35 programme is a big communist scheme to me: Free money from the DoD for LM.

Just think of what else could be done with a trillion dollars...