Thursday, December 13, 2007

F-22 Finally Operational


The F-22 Raptors at Langley AFB have reached full operational capability Dec 12, according to Gen John D.W. Corley, ACC Commander. So after more billions that you can count and many more dollars to spend to give it real air to ground capability, The USAF’s latest silver bullet is FOC with no one to fight and nothing to contribute to the current war on terror. Of course there are always those pesky Chinese that the Air Staff dreams of meeting air to air with their scarves on. I’ve never been a big fan of the F-22 because of the insane cost and the fact that only 183 are currently going to be bought. Instead of recapitalizing the fleet what we are doing by buying these expensive jets is effectively disarming ourselves. I still say we should have taken Boeing up on the offer of the F-15X proposed back in the late 90’s, a jet which would have been much like the Typhoon, but with an existing depot support structure and a proven design that would have been enhanced by modern avionics and known stealth technology.
Instead we have the Raptor, which may in fact have both corrosion and structural problems that will need to be adrresed sooner, rather than later adding more money to the cost. Check out the article in Air Force Times online.



(U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker)

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