Quote Originally Posted by Ron Humphrey View Post
I don't recall off hand the latest achievement of any peer competitors recently in airpower(at least not that we would be flying against that we know of),
but I seem to remember several instances of new subs showing up from somewhere
There are a few factors at play. Potential hostile world airforces are not, from a technical standpoint, as threatening as some F-22 advocates might have you believe, though some of the new Russian designs they're pushing for export are pretty sweet and they do outclass the F-15, but not by much when things like training, tactics and C3 are taken into account. The thing is that the F-22 will be the main fighter for perhaps the next 40-50 years, like the F-15 before it, and threat aircraft will undoubtedly increase in capability over that time.

Additionally, the F-22 was originally intended solely as a fighter, but will now have important strike missions and is actually intended to replace the F-117. Air Defense is really where the serious threats are these days and the F-22 will be what is sometimes called a "double-digit SAM killer" - meaning SA-10 and newer systems with capabilities on par with Patriot. I can go into some detail on the SAM threat as it relates to the F-22 if there anyone is interested - that is one of my geeky knowledge areas.

Finally, a lot of what's driving the boat are airframe limitations. The F-15's are wearing out and the first lot numbers have already been retired. There are three options in that case - SLEP and upgrade existing aircraft, buy new F-15's, buy F-22's. Were this 1998 and not 2008, I would probably recommend the second option - buy more F-15's. The first option has been studied and deemed too expensive - such upgrades almost equal the price tag on a new F-15. The second option doesn't make sense at this point. The F-15 production line is still open, though only producing a handful of aircraft. Those aircraft are the F-15K model that South Korea is buying and it's actually a really nice plane. The thing is, they cost about $110 million a copy. For around 30-60 million dollars more you can get F-22's, which are superior in every way and can also perform the SEAD and high-threat strike missions the F-15 cannot. Knowing what I know now with the expense and development time of the F-22, I think canceling it back in the 1990's in favor of more advanced F-15's might have been a better choice, and then shelve the F-22 for 10 or 15 years until the F-15 is really old in the tooth. At this point though, the F-22 is done. Over 1/2 of the planned 187 plane buy have been delivered and funding for the remaining has already been programmed or promised for by Congress. There are only three years of production left - The 187th plane will come off the line in 2011 at which point Congress and the next administration will have to decide whether to buy more, close the the line, or pay to keep the line on standby for future acquisitions.

We're at that point now with the C-17, actually. The line was supposed to shut down a couple years ago, but Congress and foreign orders have kept it open for now. Closing production is a serious decision because doing so costs close to half-a billion dollars by itself and if more airframes are needed in the future, it's neither easy nor cheap to re-start production.

Anyway, now I'm rambling - sorry, I get carried away!