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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel urged the Air Force on Thursday to start developing an export model of its F-22 Raptor, the most advanced U.S. fighter jet, even as it voted to end U.S. purchases
The bill, which must be reconciled with the House of Representatives' version, provided no funds for a second, interchangeable engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The alternate engine, which Obama considers wasteful, would be veto bait, the White House has said. In July, the House approved $560 million for the second engine development as part of its 2010 defense appropriations bill, despite the veto threat
Originally posted by Tayesin
I read a while back how the U.S. will not share the F22 Raptor, even with it's closest allies because it is so very advanced. Hence why the allies are buying and providing mega-dollars to the F35 JSF project.
I find it interesting though that after so few F22's have been built and put into service that the funding is being pulled early. Perhaps the warring the country is involved in is a huge dollar sink hole?
So this "improvement" demanded by politicians in fact weakened the plane as a weapons system, and provided no benefit in combat as significant losses were seen in maneuverability and radar avoidance.
The F35 will also be a sub par plane due to the interference of politicians in design elements that they have no right to demand due to their lack of knowledge.
In the interim we are to get 24 F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters for $3 billion, which were "mothballed" as you know. It amazes me that my country continues to purchased total garbage from the spare parts desert.
I read some Aussie Strategic report a while back from three guys who ran simulations of exercises to compare the Super Hornet to the Pig. No guessing that in the scenario to bomb a nearby northern country defended by SU37's, the Pig could get the job done with a loss of maybe 2 from 5 aircraft deployed. The Super Hornets on the other hand would be annihilated.
The Review of Air Combat Capability
By Abraham Gubler
F-111’s Air Combat Obsolescence
The shortfall in Hornets is made worse by the obsolescence of the F-111, an aircraft that is not combat survivable against any medium level threat without escort by an air-to-air (ATA) capable fighter. At that time of its conception in 1962 the F-111 was to achieve combat survivability against enemy fighters by flying so low their radars couldn’t detect them against the clutter of the Earth’s surface like trees, hills and waves. Against anti-aircraft guns the F-111 would drop bombs on its first pass over the target, too quick for the manually operated Ground based air defences (GBAD) to strike back, thanks to its then revolutionary computerised navigation-attack system.
Unfortunately neither survival technique was really viable against contemporary high level threats but as was typical of the time, in comparison to now, such casualties would be accepted. The terrain following radar produced such a high powered and distinctive electronic signature that its operation warned the enemy an F-111 was approaching. By the 1980s the F-111 wasn’t even viable for Australia within the South East Asia region. The development and proliferation of ‘pulse-doppler’ fighter radars enabled threat fighters to detect low flying aircraft like the F-111 and intercept them. While the F-111s speed endurance at low altitude enabled it the option of escaping some intercept threats this was dependent on early warning of the threat and was a ‘mission kill’ requiring the abandonment of the target strike.
GBAD systems were also integrated with their own sensors and computer to provide quick reaction, fast enough to hit the F-111 on a first pass bombing run. Even without modern integrated anti-aircraft systems some enemies like Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War just used massed barrages of anti-aircraft guns to put huge quantities of ‘lead’ into the sky. Low flying strike aircraft, like the British Tornado with a similar attack profile to the F-111, were subsequently shoot down in unsustainable numbers.
The RAAF has known for a long time that the F-111 was no longer combat survivable so has changed the way they are used and launched upgrades to try to keep them viable. To survive against air threats they are now escorted by Hornets and to survive against ground threats the F-111 flies high, above 10,000 feet (3km), and has been fitted with two RAFAEL AGM-142 Raptor stand off weapons (also known as the Have Lite and Popeye II) with a range of 55 NM (100km). Also a high level electronic counter measure (ECM) jammer has been fitted to provide enhanced protection against detection and tracking and to spoof enemy defences.
But these bandaid solutions are not ideal and the need for Hornet escorts places additional strains on a shorthanded RAAF. From around 2010 with only enough Hornets for two operational squadrons the RAAF will be limited to 24 sorties at any one time made up of 12 F-111s escorted by 12 Hornets and another 12 Hornets operating independently. Yet the RAAF is budgeted for and required by the Government to be able to put four squadrons or 48 combat aircraft sorties into the air.
Worse still than this cut in budgeted capability the shortfall in fighters would also mean the air combat workforce would not have enough weapon systems to develop and maintain their basic skills competency. Without air worthy aircraft pilots can’t learn to fly, ground based air combat officers (ACO) can’t practice three dimensional battlespace management, Navy ships can’t learn to defend against air threats and so on. This would have critical disastrous immediate and long term effects for Australia’s defence leading to degraded professionalism and problems with retention that would take many years to rectify.
t5c.biz...
"I don't want to sound queer or anything, but I think Sukhois rock!"
Provides $430 million to continue development of the F136 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine, and $130 million to begin Air Force procurement of the F136 engine
Provides an additional $512 million to buy 18 F/A-18E/F aircraft, rather than nine aircraft as requested, and authorizes the full request for 22 EA-18G aircraft
Authorizes a 3.4 percent across-the-board pay raise, 0.5 percent above the budget request and the annual increase in the Employment Cost Index
Originally posted by citizenbob
Bottom linr. We spend more on defense than all of the nations of the world combined. Not because we have the need to but beacuse of the system we have in place. This kind of spending can not be sustained.
If Pratt & Whitney have a monopoly what happens to Rolls Royce and GE?
and the dance continues - no doubt the fan blade failure on teh F135 helped this
interestingly: