Fantastic F-22 Raptor video

[Borderland]

I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, it's an amazing and highly capable aircraft, and our air force should have amazing and highly capable aircraft. On the other hand, they are absurdly expensive, so I can understand where the pressure to cancel the program came from.

What country has an aircraft that's better than a Super Hornet? It's not so much the aircraft anymore but the weapons systems which are continually upgraded. Even F-16's are still being built with upgraded weapons systems. Lots of countries want those because they're still a formidable aircraft and relatively inexpensive to build. I have conversations with a relative about the sales of those as he works for the AF in a capacity where he would know everything about that program.

https://www.airforcemag.com/lockheed...C%20she%20said.

[trailrunner]

Who has an aircraft that's better than a Super Hornet?

It's not only aircraft that you need to consider in this discussion.

[eric0311]

It's not only aircraft that you need to consider in this discussion.

Indeed! Any given pilot on any given day.

[Trigger]

Watching the demo team perform is one of the greatest things I've ever seen, and somehow I doubt the public even sees half of what that plane can do.

Yep. That thing is much more a weapons system than just an airplane. Like clubbin baby seals.

[hufnagel]

I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, it's an amazing and highly capable aircraft, and our air force should have amazing and highly capable aircraft. On the other hand, they are absurdly expensive, so I can understand where the pressure to cancel the program came from.

The problem is, the first 10 (or 'X' if you want) are absurdly expensive. The last one off the line is the cheapest.

I think the Raptor is a fantastic plane, but every time I see it fly I feel like someone did an Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start Button, after they climbed in the cockpit. Watching an Eagle, Falcon, Thunderbolt II, hell even a Herky Bird do their thing and it just feels like there's work being done to make it look amazing; you can see and feel the fight with the forces involved to perform impressive feats of aviation. With a Raptor, it always seems so.... boring, even if it's not.

[gkieser92]

It's not only aircraft that you need to consider in this discussion.

Indeed. With our near-peer threats, surface to air and air-to-air missile technology have come a long way. Not to mention the effects on planning when you know that your bombers (carrying cruise missiles and ballistic antiship missiles) won't be able to detect when they are being intercepted by a stealth fighter. Imagine being a TU-95 crew and you have no idea a Raptor is on you until you look out the window and see him come alongside. In war you won't know until there's a missle lock...

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[UNM1136]

The precision and responsiveness of the controls make it look like an animated video...and a poorly animated one at that!

pat

[Guerrero]

I saw an F-22 demo a few years ago. I swear my eyes were not correctly talking to my brain. Having grown up with private pilots... planes aren't meant to do that.

[Hot Sauce]

What country has an aircraft that's better than a Super Hornet? It's not so much the aircraft anymore but the weapons systems which are continually upgraded. Even F-16's are still being built with upgraded weapons systems. Lots of countries want those because they're still a formidable aircraft and relatively inexpensive to build. I have conversations with a relative about the sales of those as he works for the AF in a capacity where he would know everything about that program.

https://www.airforcemag.com/lockheed...C%20she%20said.

If you care to find your answer, it's worth reading the 2008 RAND publication, Air Combat: Past, Present, and Future.

It's pretty detailed, so depending on your tolerance for all that info, you may want to keyword search "2020 Example" and go to what they expected in 2008 to be a prospective fight in 2020.

Short version: even if other side doesn't have stealth fighters and we do (and that assumption won't always be accurate), and our stealth fighters clearly outmatch their and fight perfectly, an enemy with enough 4th gen aircraft will still be able to slaughter the support elements such as AWACS/tankers that our planes need to succeed, and thus be able to establish air superiority despite our opposition.

[Dave Williams]

So I was sitting next to a guy whose son is an F18 pilot, and according to the guy, nothing in the world can touch the F22. He said his son was up in Alaska dog fighting an F22 and his son has excellent vision, and saw the F22 off in the distance, just a speck. So he took evasive maneuvers, and managed to survive a second longer than he should have. In the debrief the F22 pilot wanted to know why he'd taken evasive maneuvers, and the F18 pilot said, "I saw you" and the F-22 pilot said, "That's impossible!, I'm invisible in the sky", and the F18 pilot said, "no i saw you with my eyes, not my radar". I thought it was pretty cool.