Why I now like the F/A-22 Raptor

For the longest time, I believed that the super sexy aircraft to the left was an unneccessary waste of time and money, even if it was awesome. I changed my mind recently, and in a big way.

Before, I believed that the F-15 platform was just fine for air dominance and with good reason. The F-15 has a flawless combat record and is an incredible machine on it's own. Combine it with an AWACS and JSTARS platform, some AIM-120 air to air missiles, and you have a real party on your hands. You can kill anything as soon as it moves, pretty much. It's sweet.

Now, modern air forces, at least in opposing nations, did not seem that advanced to me. We turned Saddam's finest into lawn darts or demolished them on the ground... that is, if we didn't deny them the ability to get airborn through the destruction of facilities. The Israelis have taken the F-15 against the MiG-29 and they still won.

The F-15 is aging, but one of my crazy ideas was to arm C-135s with spools of long range missiles and team them with AWACS/JSTARS for targeting and F-16s for emergency defense. Our newest 'fighter' is a 747 with a laser in it, so why not, right?

Time has not stood still. As the F-4 was put out to pasture in face of more advanced aircraft like the F-15, so the F-15 now will yield. I didn't think that we needed to advance... FOOLISH! If you can advance, you should, but there is more to it than that. You see, the Bear has not been sleeping and the Dragon is growing restless. It was easy to overrun the Iraqis. It was easy to buzz around Bosnia, though they spanked us a few times, mostly due to foolishness on our part. Done, over with. We move on.

There are new SAM systems out there, developed by the Russians and exported. The Chinese have been refining their SAMs as well. Too, the Russians never went out of the fighter business. An Su-37 could be bad news for an aircrew... Neither did the Chinese. They have a new fighter, the J-10, that is very much a threat to our aircraft.

These new threats require technology that can get our aircraft into the battle and defy enemy tracking systems. I realised how important this was when I began to become aware of the dispute over the Diaoyutai (Dee-ow-yoo-ty, say it with me) islands. The Taiwan situation is an example of where the F-22 could really be a lifesaver.

Let's review some of the advantages it has over the F-15:

• 50% of the support cost
  
• twice the mission frequency capability
  
• twice the reliability
  
• 50% of the maintanence man-hours per flight hour
  
• 66% quicker turnaround time between sorties
  
• 50% less airlift required to support a deployment
  
• can track MANY more targets, some pilots say that on F-22 can take on ten F-15s at once and win...
  

Other random goodies include multipurpose maintanence components (tools that do many things), a new computerized diagnostic system that can also order new parts (neat, huh?) and a modular avionics system that lets one module do many things... in such a way that a working module can take over funtions from others that become damaged in combat!
Weapons are stored internally, alowing for more efficient flight and a radar cross section like an anorexic sparrow. IR signature is reduced. The plane is hard to see in the air, though that technology was developed on the F-15. Last, but not least, it is the only aircraft in the world that can cruise supersonic. This not only uses less fuel without giving up speed, but nearly eliminates the possibility of a radar return from the exhaust plume and reduces significantly the chance of IR detection.

All this adds up to a system that will meet the Chinese and destroy them should they decide to attempt any further imperialistic excursions. It will reduce costs, allow us to project more power with fewer aircraft, and give us a way to dominate SAM threatened airspace.

To sum up:

• Maneuverability and speed that keeps abreast of modern fighters
  
• Simplified maintanence
  
• Reduced visibility
  
• Quicker to deploy
  
• Easier to fly
  
• Mechanically more robust
  
• Superior to eveything, not just equal
  

The only downside:

• 256.8 million dollars a copy... don't worry, once geared up for production, that drops to 133.3 million.

Yes, that F-15, she's still a sexy and deadly bird, but life can't be static. She is pushing 30, after all. A lot has changed since 1975.

Farewell, old friend. You raised the bar higher than ever.