F-22 Raptor Thread

[Dizasta1]

So I have a question:

When Raptors participate in such war exercizes like Red Flag and so on. Do they enter into battle in full stealth mode? Is the RCS of the Raptor, that which it would be in actual war? Because I highly doubt that the Americans would be this gullible, whereby the Raptor's actual RCS is determined. And when I say actual RCS, I mean when opponent aircraft like Rafales, Gripens, Typhoons & etc determine during an engagement as what distance did their radars manage to detect the Raptor. And whether the Raptor had already managed to fire off a volley of missiles at them?

Simulations seem alright, but personally would limit my trust in them to recording engagements, and not their predictive algorithm, based on information already fed into the system.

 

[timepass]

Lockheed Martin engineers to determine the fate of Tyndall's F-22s damaged by Hurricane Michael - The Aviation Geek Club

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Initial assessments said that up to 17 of the F-22s had been destroyed, but top USAF officials later visited the base and said the damage wasn't as bad as first thought

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[Bernard]

So I have a question:

When Raptors participate in such war exercizes like Red Flag and so on. Do they enter into battle in full stealth mode? Is the RCS of the Raptor, that which it would be in actual war? Because I highly doubt that the Americans would be this gullible, whereby the Raptor's actual RCS is determined. And when I say actual RCS, I mean when opponent aircraft like Rafales, Gripens, Typhoons & etc determine during an engagement as what distance did their radars manage to detect the Raptor. And whether the Raptor had already managed to fire off a volley of missiles at them?

Simulations seem alright, but personally would limit my trust in them to recording engagements, and not their predictive algorithm, based on information already fed into the system.

That is why they're simulations, the French rafales and marketing industry can tout all they want. F-22s are not for sale. So no need to go full stealth if they know there is no reason too. It's a training exercise. Did you know F-22s were built to be so stealthy they can only talk to other individual F-22s, without the new tech coming out allowing older 4th gen planes to have ?link 16? Now that is cool! F-22 is the only "combat" ready stealthy Fighter jets in the world, that have been around for long enough to be able to train with, use and update our own radars against, build up strategies against stealth abilities and even build another updated 5.5 gen stealth aircraft that will be built en masse for all our allies from what we learned from the F-22. Oh and don't forget the B-2s is anyone even close to fielding a stealth bomber? We have mechanisms to control how stealthy we want them to be.

Why do you think we intercept Russian bombers in Alaska with F-22s. We KNOW they are just trying to get a read on RCS and how stealthy they are

 

[anzha]

All the

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that were left behind at

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during Hurricane Michael have moved on to the bases where they will be housed until the Air Force determines their final future destination, the service's top civilian said Thursday.

"All of the F-22s have been flown out now," Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said during the annual Defense One summit in Washington, D.C. "All of the damage to them was minor ... They were repaired and flown out."

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I was delightfully wrong.

However, I worry a bit about Tyndall's fate and whether or not the F-22s will be based there again at all.

 

[Dizasta1]

If one reads the article further, there is an interesting mention of an Air Force Forum page on FaceBook.

A message from someone identifying themselves as a member of the 43rd Fighter Squadron appeared on a Facebook page called Air Force Forum. “Four 43d F-22s were left behind to ride out the hurricane,” the anonymous poster wrote. “One of them was scheduled to leave but GABed [ground aborted] after an issue prior to taxi. The other three were jets that couldn’t be spun up in time to fly.” He pointed out that two had been cannibalized for parts and the others had “issues that couldn’t be fixed. They were in hangars that [they] are usually put in according to hurricane plans.”

It seems as though there are some conflicting reports here. If indeed all F-22s have been flown out of Tyndalls AFB, then there is reason to believe that somewhere, someone is not telling the truth. Of course, if there are two actual Raptors which have been canabalized. Then we can expect a bloodbath in the US Congress and someone in the Pentagon is probably gonna get fired from their job. One thing is for sure, a loss of an F-22, even if it is due to a hurricane, is psychologically more devastating a news. Considering that there are so few of them built and at $200 million per aircraft, it will surely cause a political hurricane in Washington D.C.

 

[anzha]

Considering that there are so few of them built and at $200 million per aircraft, it will surely cause a political hurricane in Washington D.C.

TBH, I doubt it.

Too many other things are hurricane class 5 and above already and the USAF has already started the F-22 replacement.

 

[Dizasta1]

TBH, I doubt it.

Too many other things are hurricane class 5 and above already and the USAF has already started the F-22 replacement.

Replacing the F-22s with what? The Sixth Generation fighter isn't going to be online until 2040 or so. Unless of course you're implying that Lockheed Martin is churning out new build Raptors from Area-51 or something!

 

[Jura The idiot]

... USAF has already started the F-22 replacement.

exactly how?

 

[anzha]

exactly how?

The NGAD? Remember the thread you complimented when I first started on sinodefense? The reason why the Frankenraptor/F-22C was DOA?

I pulled out the budget numbers for the NGAD program. $500M+/- this fiscal year and then $1.3B next year growing to $3.2B circa 2023? Analysis of alternatives is already done. IF the AOA is done, the next step is contracts for demonstrators and prototypes.

The USAF RCO is running the program, just like they are for the B-21. The funding profile puts the NGAD aircraft to be circa 2028 for an IOC if it follows the B-21's path.

 

[Jura The idiot]

The NGAD? Remember the thread you complimented when I first started on sinodefense? ...

OK I trust it's
#9945 anzha, Sep 4, 2018