possible future F-22 exports intended to compete with Eurofighter?

A recent senate panel has urged the US Air Force to development an export model of the F-22.

Before this was not allowed as the F-22 was considered so costly and the new stealth technology that made it up to be "the best fighter jet ever", obviously too good to sell, even to close allies of the US.

But after Obama forced F-22 production to be stopped on the 187th fighter and threatened to veto the rest since the plane had no war to fight and wasn't that reliable meant that people who were clinging to their jobs relating to this Cold War era fighter would be out of work, however production could be continued if models were made to export, they were obviously being represented by Congress on this one.

Countries showing interest in buying the F-22 are Australia, Japan and Israel.

While Australia and Israel were to get the F-35 Lighting II (which was designed nearly solely for export) but it appears having the F-22 up for sale will definitely change things or make them more complicated.

However my first thoughts on this whole idea may be Lockheed Martin wanting a chance to compete in the foreign market of selling fighter jets with the Eurofighter Typhoon.



The Eurofighter has been introduced six years ago and is seen stepped up production, however the design and idea of such a a twin-engine canard-delta wing multirole jet fighter has originated between the Western European allies that designed it as far back as the Cold War, it is often compared to the Raptor but cost half as much and has been shown to be more reliable.

72 Eurofighters for GB£4.43 billion



The United Kingdom has made it's biggest arms deal in history, with Saudi Arabia of all people, the agreement is for 72 Eurofighters 24 of which to be in the Tranche 2 build standard which were previously destined to be the first of its kind in the RAF front line will now be instead sent to Saudi Arabia.

The BAe deal worth GB£4.43 billion is a contract I'm sure Lockheed Martin would have liked to have the likes of and would certainly hope to have a similar arms deal in the mere future to help maintain good business.

This deal has also shifted the balance of air power in the Middle East to Saudi Arabia's favor and is the biggest single sale of jet fighters to a Gulf country since the 80 F-14 Tomcats sold to Iran during Project Persian King in the late 1970's!

the failure that is the F-22!

After the success of Operation Desert Storm the F-22 Raptor was given serious thought and throughout the 90's was continually funded by the US government through Congress. This was going to be a serious plane that would ensure the US had the most technologically superior fighter jet in the world, and they had enough time and resources to do it.

But somewhere along the line it got political, one lie led to one exaggeration and before we knew it a super plane was out there, the F-22 was the best, sure it was a weapon built 20 years ahead of its time but every American could sleep safely at night knowing that this hi-tech mother of all planes was on their side!



And it was going great, simulated combat exercises showed F-22's downing hundreds of "enemy" planes with not a single loss to their own, one of the first signs of major shortcomings however was when on their first overseas deployment to the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa from Hawaii six Raptors experienced multiple computer crashes coincident with their crossing of the 180th meridian of longitude (the International Date Line). They completely lost communication and navigation and had to follow the tanker back to Hawaii in good weather.

This little incident rivaled the plot of the movie Stealth but to be fair the error was fixed in 48 hours, and they made it a second time, and it was only a little news story for like a day not even questioning whether or not the F-22 had shortcomings.

Yes onto those, the Olsen complaint (Olsen a former employee at Lockheed Martin) shows how the company lied and how the whole thing was political, Congress was convinced to keep funding the F-22 since along with it were jobs for hundreds of people across nearly all the states of the union.



It requires 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the sky which means $44,000 is spent on it an hour, only 55% of the entire F-22 fleet can be air ready at any given time to defend the US air space!
And it can only be guaranteed to fly for around 1.7 hours before there is a critical failure that would in turn jeopardize its mission!

The route cause of the maintenance issues boils to the radar absorbing metallic body which is extremely vulnerable to rain and other abrasion.

Apart from that the war it was supposed to fight ended 20 years ago, it has no need in today's war and with its major shortcomings probably none in the future neither, production ended last week (22nd of July 2009) ending the long economic burden that the plane had, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had this to say about the F-22:

"The F-22, to be blunt, does not make much sense anyplace else in the spectrum of conflict. Nonetheless, supporters of the F-22 lately have promoted its use for an ever expanding list of potential missions. These range from protecting the homeland from seaborne cruise missiles to, as one retired general recommended on TV, using F-22s to go after Somali pirates who in many cases are teenagers with AK-47s – a job we already know is better done at much less cost by three Navy SEALs. These are examples of how far-fetched some of the arguments have become for a program that has cost $65 billion – and counting – to produce 187 aircraft, not to mention the thousands of uniformed Air Force positions that were sacrificed to help pay for it."



So there you have it, more expensive than its intended competitor the Su-27 Flanker (that is nearly 30 years old) is still a much better fighter to this day!

Russian aviation still more technologically advanced

source: pandemicstuidos.com

The above image is of two Su-47's, one having downed the new American "Top Gun" fighter the F-22 Raptor and another one firing one of its hard points, the Su-47 Berkut is another one of the examples of prototypes and technology demonstrators made by the Russians since the end of the Cold War.

But here's the thing, there are only two out there, its distinguished by its forward swept wings can hold a variety of different missiles (up to 14!).

But its not perfect and any ole aircraft won't suit the Russians.

Back in the late 1970's the Russians needed something to counter the American teen series fighters (F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon), they came up with a fighter that seemed to combine the three of these, it was big, fast, highly maneuverable and armed to the teeth with missiles, it was not half as nimble as the Russians MiG's were in the 1970's, also it was designed unlike the MiG-29 to perform missions deep inside enemy territory.



The US has pushed the F-22 program forward after the Cold War to counter the new Flanker threat, what is supposed to be is the next generation fighter that is supposed to be a new generation in stealth fighters, but the truth is its fat, slower than the 26 year old Russian Flanker and expensive.

Yet the Congress in the US has been given shallow reasons to push forward on its development, Lockheed Martin have pushed forward 127 F-22's since 2006!

There have been other plans by the Russians for a new front line fighter to replace the MiG-29 and the Su-27 that started in the late 1980s!
Just how far ahead of the US in technological air strength where the Reds planning to go?



The Mikoyan Project 1.44 is another technology demonstrator to face down the F-22 Raptor, although Mikoyan seem to be going forward on this one with ease since they could use the same funds to build a couple more Fulcrums and Flankers instead of spending vast amounts of money on over a hundred big expensive stealth fighters that are unproven (and shiny).