F 35 Joint Strike Fighter is the King of the Skies: Goodbye F-22
Jul 21, 2009 - By mikepayne
F 35 Joint Strike Fighter is the New Air Force Standard – Today, the US Congress voted to officially retire production of the F-22 Raptor in favor of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or the “F-35 Lightning II”. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will take to the skies in 2011, when the phase out of the F-22 will be complete. What will the new F-35 fighter have in store for its future pilots?
The F35’s main power source is a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, capable of pushing the Lightning II to speeds up to Mach 1.67 and a range of 1,400 nautical miles. It will include a 25 mm cannon, a bevy of air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles and a wide range of bomb capacity. While some will certainly miss the history and value of the F-22 Raptor, the F 35 Joint Strike Fighter is an ample upgrade to continue the dominance of the U.S. Armed Forces in the skies.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:46PM
The F-35 was chosen because it is cheaper, not because it is better.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:55PM
The ultimate technology in these planes is not needed. We have air superiority with F-16's and F-15's, F-18's. Although very cool planes the country cannot afford the investment at this time.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:07PM
The F-22 is designed for a different role and is not being phased out. The F-22 is an air superiority fighter just like the F-15. The F-35 is a ground attack plane capable of fighting it's way in and back out like the F-16 and F-18. The F-22 isn't going away, it just isn't going to be produced in as high of numbers as it once was.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:12PM
Hey Mike– it actually won't be produced at all going forward. The Senate voted to kill production of the F-22 altogether.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:15PM
2011? we will see.
cheaper? we will see.
the USAF gets 1760? Of course.
People the truth is there will never be more then 2000 of them worldwide costing more
then a new-bought F22.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:16PM
We'll still have close to 200 F-22s on hand, even w/ the Senate decision. I think that will be plenty.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:45PM
Article is inaccurate. Congress did not vote to officially "retire" the F-22. They voted to not include additional funding for additional F-22's which is completely different than retiring an aircraft.
The F-22 wont "officially" be "retired" for another 20 years for more.
An example of an aircraft's "official retirement" would be the F-14 a few years back.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:54PM
Interesting theory. Now for some fact.
The F-35 is not cheaper. At least yet. It only has 2 percent of its flight testing done. The schedule is behind (including the flight test schedule)…. and yet they want to build hundreds of "mistake jets" before flight test discovery shows anything. A long way to go and yet all there is at this time is hype.
BTW the boss of the USAF came out last month stating that 1763 isn't needed for the USAF ( the biggest potential F-35 buyer) "but over 1500". Watch that slip even more in the coming years. Price will now go up on the jet…. A traditional procurement death spiral.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 12:04AM
Our planes and ships are lagging behind the competition.
It's sad when Korean, Chinese, Russian, European… etc Warships and Fighter jets are ahead in every way than the USA.
SAD!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 12:16AM
I would rather our leaders purchase f-22's and f-35s than try to run education or a department of energy that has not solved there stated goals.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 12:39AM
Who cares; we had over a trillion dollars worth of military hardware on 9/11 and it couldn't stop nineteen buys with box cutters from killing 3,000 American's need to get priorities straight. I wish for a day when the airforce has to conduct bake sale sto buy F-022's or 35's.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:10AM
Korean,Chinese,and Russian ahead…What are you smoking. We have had air and naval supremacy for years. The Russians weapons are barely operational from years of Glastnost and the Chinese are at least 5-10 years behind.( although they are trying to steal enough from the USA to catch up) With over 15 years of military experience I think I should know. Our only downfall will be financial not military. Before you put crap out on a blog next time know your facts.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:14AM
http://www.f-16.net/news_article3635.html
The F-35 has major problems as well.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 5:19AM
A lawsuit can claim anything. It is the right of every American to file a lawsuit. That filing, in and of itself, does not constitute fact. Just FYI.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 5:51AM
Man are some of you hard headed, dead wrong, and have no idea about facts. For those of you that think the F-22 is better, your not pilots and your not doing your HW. Why is it that you don't want to look at the task at hand but want to prepare for a fabrication that could happen 20 years from now. The F-22 has never served in a combat zone daaaaaaa! Also this bill has to still go through the House, some committee and the President. When was the last time a US fighter was in a dog fight? Answer, Nam you idiots, Nam. Over 30 years ago! For the next foreseeable future we will need planes mostly for ground targets. Don't worry the F-35 will still be good for your imaginary dog fights and our planes will still be ahead in technology by 10 years. Maybe we should build a billion dollar spaceship, for dog fighting with space aliens when they try to take over the Earth.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:04AM
wood0771: We all know that the last US dog fight was Maverick/Iceman Vs those rusky ‘MiG-28s’, hem no F-5…
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:37AM
Amen to all that. I understand you'll be able to leave an F-35 out in the rain too. It's way past time for this F-22 boondoggle to become history. Next the Osprey?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 2:30PM
Actually, there were several dogfights in the 1991 Gulf war. The F-15's alone accounted for approx. 26 kills with no losses.
The US Navy F-18's scored several air to air kills as well.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:36PM
Ha! Good one….I stand corrected!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:06PM
i worked for pratt and whitney as a machinist. the F35 and F22 has the same engine. the F22 was only for the air force because it does not have vertical lift, for take off. the F35 is for the army,navy and marines because it has vertical lift.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 6:21PM
The level of ignorence here is astounding!!! America has made a fatal error for terminating the F-22..Watch history repeat itself like in the skies over Vietnam made the U.S, relearn hard lessons…F-15 and F-16 easy meat now for the Su`s and nothing can hide that fact…F-35 bettrer then both above but pales against Raptor,,,Chinese and Russuans are laughing their asss off…Just because no Air battles recently does`nt mean it wont happen again.. Ask the Isrealis…
Thursday, July 23, 2009 5:30PM
Wow a lot of swaggering go on in here. I don't know if I can stand it. LOL, I see it this way, we need both platforms at some time here in the near future. the F15 and F16 are 1970's airframes and are in need of an upgrade. the future is so uncvertain with the koreans, chinese, only to name a few. To only have one or the other air frame is crazy and is limiting the capability of all US forces. But what will really astound me is when we need to fund this program through foriegn sales. Which will then make our technology available to the highest bidder. Do we then control superiority through technology or is it just imagined.
majordave
Thursday, July 23, 2009 7:12PM
You must not do a lot of reading about the technological upgrades of our potential adversaries. Just in Surface-to-Air Missiles threats alone, these aircraft are needed. Everyone buys SAMs to protect their borders/towns.
Friday, July 24, 2009 3:21AM
There were also kills in Operation Allied Force, Kosovo, 1999.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 2:23PM
The F-35 has gotton mixed reviews. It is not that agile, relatively slow, and it is the first US fighter not to have a better than 1 to 1 thrust to weight ratio in nearly 40 years. Its rear visibility is also not that great. In short it is the modern version of the Iron Dog (P-39),
Friday, September 11, 2009 2:18PM
You're the only one realizing the true issue here. The Russians, Chinese, and soon the Venezuelans will all have a better aircraft compared to the F-15's and the F-35 is not superior to the Sukhoi Su-30MK2. The F-22 was superior to the Su-30. Russia has caught up with USA, that is the major issue here. The F-22 was the answer to the catch up over the F-15's capabilities. The F-35 isn't near as good as the F-22's capabilites, and no they are not similar. The Democrats screwed America again… Never fails.