Originally posted by metalfan87
Hey everyone, I have a question, and it's sort of off topic alittle bit but kinda relates to this to.. anyways, my question is, everyone talks about
black projects that the U.S. military has with the Government and some say that we have stuff that would make Star Wars look like a thing of the past
and that were 30-50 years ahead of what we have now. It's all interesting to read about or hear about and i'm sure we do have some advanced stuff
but not to make Star Wars look like the past, probably just little experiments. But in other threads people are talking about all these problems with
the F-22 and the F-35 JSF... shouldn't these projects be a cake walk to make and produce, considering the "Star Wars" type stuff we have. so why
are we having all these problems with the F-22 and F-35 when were so advanced??
Thanks, Metal fan

Great question Metal fan,
Correct me if I'm misinterpreting, but your question breaks down to this:
"If we are 30-50 years ahead technologically then why do we have problems with the F-22 & F35?"
First, I partially agree with your statement (although I tend to think of it being more like 25 yrs ahead), "...I'm sure we do have some advanced
stuff but not to make Star Wars look like the past, probably just little experiments"
The DoD throws billions of dollars into black projects every year and most of these are aerospace projects or peripherals of aerospace projects.
Many of these projects may involve a single or small number of functional units.
Has the defense industry produced things that would make "Star Wars" look like the past? No...but they
might have developed things that would
seem to be on par with "Star Wars" (the movie) technology.
And what then of the question, "If we are 30-50 years ahead technologically then why do we have problems with the F-22 & F35?"
Perhaps there is a 2-fold (maybe more) answer to this...
1. They don't want to reveal/openly use technology prematurely by premiering it on a widely reknowned system like the F-22 or 35.
2. Regardless of the level of technology, any system will have bugs that need to be worked out and the F-22 and 35 are no different. Basically, the
level of technology one possesses does not necessarily corespond to the avoidance of bugs in the system that need to be shaken out.