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Showing posts with the label F-22

Mytai Fighters. US Air Force F-22 Raptor mass takeoff in Hawaii (Credits-MIL3010)

Finally: The US Air Force's New Super F-22 Raptor is Coming (Credits- US Military News)

Shock The World : America Need Four F-22 Raptor to Kill This Fighter Jet (Credits- American Tactical Fighter)

Finally : America's New F-22 Super Raptor is Coming & After Upgrade (Credits- American Tactical Fighter)

F-22 Raptor Demonstration Profile | 360 VR Edition (Credits- F22 Demo Team)

Building the Future of Air Power: The F-22 Raptor (Credits- Lockheed Martin)

The Only Plane That Could Beat The F-22 Raptor (Credits- Destiny)

How China’s J-20 stealth fighters compare with America’s F-22s (Credits- South China Morning Post)

Russia's PAK FA Stealth Fighter: The US Air Force's Worst Nightmare? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Robert Farley)

Sukhoi PAK FA ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Rulexip) Source- The National Interest Author- Robert Farley The PAK FA has played the bugbear for Western air forces for nearly a decade, the terrifying Russian jet that will eat F-35s for breakfast. American aviation analysts in search of something, anything that might threaten U.S. air dominance settled on the PAK FA, a frankly evil looking jet that bore a very mild resemblance to the MiG-31 “Firefox” that Clint Eastwood made famous. Say what you will about the F-35, but Lockheed Martin has actually built and delivered one hundred and seventy one aircraft thus far.  The Russian Air Force, meanwhile, has yet to receive its first PAK FA.  In lieu of the PAK FA, Russia has continued to acquire generation 4.5 fighters (mostly of the Flanker family) as well as upgrading generation 4 fighters (including various Flankers, the MiG-29 Fulcrum, and the MiG-31 Foxhound). Sukhoi will likely never build the number of fighters

America's 6th-Generation Fighter: The F-22 Raptor Rises from the Ashes? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

USAF F-22 Raptor ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The Pentagon erred in prematurely terminating the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter program—having miscalculated how quickly the Russians and Chinese would develop new aircraft. While the Raptor is not likely to brought back into production, the Air Force and Navy have started work on a next generation air superiority capability. The basic problem stems from a mistake that was made in the aftermath of the Cold War. During the 1990s and the early 2000s—with the Soviet threat evaporating—the Defense Department did not anticipate facing off against a near-peer threat in the foreseeable future. That assessment was wrong—as Russian and Chinese developments have shown. “The department and the Congress made a decision that we would not see a near-peer threat within a number of years, and that decision also proved to be—and that judgm

A Solution to America's F-35 Nightmare: Why Not Build More F-22s? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

USAF F-22 Raptor ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar America’s F-35 clearly has its share of problems. Such challenges only compound the U.S. Air Force’s real dilemma: not having enough dedicated air superiority fighters as potential competitors like Russia and China beef up their own capabilities. The problem stems from the fact that the Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fleet was terminated after only 187 aircraft were built–less than half of the 381 jets the service needed as a bare minimum. Speaking to reporters at the Air Force Association convention in National Harbor, Md., just outside the capital, Air Combat Command commander Gen. Hawk Carlisle said he would love to see the Raptor back in production. “I dream about it every night,” Carlisle said. Indeed, the Raptor has proven to be a formidable warplane with its unique combination of stealth, speed, maneuverability, altitude and senso

America's F-22 Raptor vs. China's Stealth J-20: Who Wins? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

Chengdu J-20 ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Alexandr Chechin) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar Despite its recent economic troubles, the People’s Republic of China is likely to be the only peer level competitor to the United States over the next fifty years. While a conflict is unlikely—a Third World War is in nobody’s interests—the United States must be prepared for such an eventuality.   As with all modern conventional wars, airpower and air superiority will play a key role. For the United States, the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor will be America’s premier weapon to ensure dominance over the skies until it is eventually replaced by whatever comes out of the U.S. Air Force’s F-X program. The most direct Chinese analogue to the Raptor is the Chengdu J-20. How would such a jet fair against America’s best? Not much is known about the Chinese jet—it might not even be a fighter in the traditional sense of the word. It could b

America's F-22 Stealth Fighter vs. Russia's PAK-FA: Who Wins? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

Image credits- Lockheed Martin Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar This year marks a decade since the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor was declared operational with the U.S. Air Force. Billed by many as the most capable air superiority fighter ever built, the Raptor only recently proved its mettle in combat over Syria and Iraq about a year ago. But the jet wasn’t used to annihilate a Soviet air armada over the Fulda Gap or rip apart an advanced enemy integrated air defense system as its designers had envisioned. Instead, the Raptor has most been relegated to the role of a flying sensor platform. Nonetheless, the day is coming when the F-22 could face a foe that might have a chance of going toe-to-toe with it and winning—albeit a small one. Russia and China are hard at work developing the Chengdu J-20 and the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA. Of these two machines, the PAK-FA is probably the more serious challenger. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has

The U.S. Air Force's Ultimate What If: No F-35 and Many More F-22's ( Source- The National Interest / Author- James Hasik)

USAF F-22 Raptor ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- James Hasik The idea hasn’t gotten beyond the Duffel Blog and this column, but what if the USAF had long ago dropped the F-35A? As I noted last month, had the Pentagon foregone developing a wholly new fighter jet, the $100 billion it has spent to date on the F-35 project would have bought about 740 Eurofighter Typhoons. Euro-anything, of course, is hardly the USAF’s style, and the War Department hasn’t bought a French fighter since 1918. Doing so today is about as likely as Rob Farley getting a “Friend of the Air Force” award from General Welsh. So what else might the USAF have done? As a first-order vignette in this alternative history, let’s assume that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wouldn’t have ended the F-22 program in 2009 at 187 aircraft. That said, the answer was never just a lot more F-22s. The first problem is procurement and operating costs. The US

China vs. America in the Sky: A Stealth-Fighter Showdown Is Brewing ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Dave Majumdar)

J-20 combat Aircraft ( Image source- Wikimedia commons/ Credits- Alexandr Chechin) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar China’s new stealth fighters might one day be able to match their American equivalents in battle, Pentagon and industry officials fear. Indeed, China is showing off its latest Shenyang J-31 stealth fighter at the Zhuhai air show in the Guangdong province. To meet the challenge, the Pentagon needs to continue to buy the F-35 and start developing a future fighter to counter the rising threat. “The J-31—along with the J-20 [the other Chinese stealth fighter]—is a tangible demonstration of the efforts made by China to counter the significant advantage the U.S. has with the [Lockheed Martin] F-22 and F-35,” said one senior U.S. military official with extensive experience with so-called fifth-generation fighters. “They recognize that fourth-gen airplanes [like the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, Russian Su-27 and so on] are quickly becoming obsolete. Th