The Raptor is dead.

[hippo24]

Well you have my vote!

Thank you.
I always try to Help you poor souls who deemed things like war and foreign policy as just elaborate games we play for fun.

What would us poor souls do without you,
I was just about to join the peace-corp, thank god you were here to talk me down.

Now my time can be spent where it truely matters,
training attack dogs to hunt down aliens (never to soon to start selective breeding),
and going-to-bed-because-its-like-5-in-the-morning-and-I-don't-really-know-why-I'm-up-arguing-about-whether-its-justified-that-Obama-is-killing-dinosaurs.

Though the former isn't rigorously enforced.

 

[Motti]

While the Raptor looks cool, I liked the company Supermarine [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine] better when they were making Racing planes.[/analogy]

LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS! They invented the spitfire, and nothing can top that!

...such a great plane...

I'm going to leave you in your happy little world there and not mention the hurricane. Oops, too late.

OT: While I'm not an expert on planes, I don't think that it's a big deal that they're not making more. The old planes still exist don't they? If it does come to a battle of britan style completly air battle America still has 187 F-22s don't they?

 

[LongAndShort]

I doubt your gonna be at war with China or Russia in the near future, and even still you'd probably be helped the Brits, French and Germans who have enough brilliant fighter planes to make up for any deficiencies. But as i said, its unlikely you'll be fighting any major military powers in the forseeable future.

I reckon that instead of spending billions on a handful of planes you should instead spend it on better protection for the troops on the ground who are actually fighting the war on terror, or on aircraft that can help them in that role, such as A-10's or attack helicopters.

 

[Chester41585]

Personally, I'm a supporter of UCAV technology. But I was also hoping the YF-23 would beat the F-22.
The F-22 is a good jet, granted, and does it's job well, but the only time I think it will truly shine is in an end-world scenario involving the Big Three (or Four. I lost count when the EU popped up). The F-35's role as a CASJSF is a good idea, but the AV-8s in service perform the same role, cheaper. A-10s are decent, but don't have the VTOL/STOVL feature that appeals to alot of the brass in the DoD.

I see alot of these new fighter concepts and look back at the B-52, which has an extended maintenance and lifetime expectancy of another twenty or thirty years.

 

[blaze96]

What would us poor souls do without you,
I was just about to join the peace-corp, thank god you were here to talk me down.

Now my time can be spent where it truely matters,
training attack dogs to hunt down aliens (never to soon to start selective breeding),
and going-to-bed-because-its-like-5-in-the-morning-and-I-don't-really-know-why-I'm-up-arguing-about-whether-its-justified-that-Obama-is-killing-dinosaurs.

Though the former isn't rigorously enforced.

Well at least your priorities are in the correct order damn it. Seriously though, I agree with your earlier posts.

 

[L4hlborg]

Maybe, just maybe, it is a good idea not to spend a shitload of cash into something that won't be used for anything for like the next decade, while the economy is not doing too well. I'm not saying that it's a brilliant idea to leave a nation undefended or that the other stuff they are building is any better, but rejecting that seems like a sensible idea.

 

[Srkkl]

Why don't we just spend less money on giant fighter jets, and more on world peace?

If you want world peace prepare for war.

OT: If experts agree we don't need them and the money is going to better things then I'm going to have to agree with the outcome.

 

[manaman]

snip

I was in when they had the force shaping program. When they cut 15,000 airmen from the ranks during the middle of a war. This comes as no surprise. I was never a fan of Obama. Frankly having him in office and the democrats in charge of the house and senate scares me. I wouldn't care if they had much less of a grip.

I have and always will be a moderate. I do not completely agree with either party. Less so with the republicans as they seem to be getting crazier as they lose power. The extreme left however is even worse, and those people seem to be gaining influence by the day.

You're more than ready. How many F-22's you got? 187 you say? They are cancelling 7 more. Well fuck me, you're totally screwed now aren't you? In fact you'd be pretty fucked with only 7 more...I reckon you need at least another couple of hundred, I think you should write to your senator and complain.

Those seven more where the minimum to keep the line open. Without those they close as in no more. I thought they pushed that through last year to give them time to fully decide how many they wanted, guess they managed to get it delayed so they could turn it down this year.

OT: If experts agree we don't need them and the money is going to better things then I'm going to have to agree with the outcome.

Problem is the experts disagree, the bean counters are pulling the strings on this one.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS! They invented the spitfire, and nothing can top that!

...such a great plane...

I'm going to leave you in your happy little world there and not mention the hurricane. Oops, too late.

Oh come on, the Hurricane as good at what it did...shooting down stuka's and He111' s, both of which were pieces of crap. Put it up against a decent fighter and you had problems. There's a reason the spitfire was continued...it was a much better fighter. If all those spitfires had been hurricanes we'd have been (even more) thoroughly in the shit.

Those seven more where the minimum to keep the line open. Without those they close as in no more. I thought they pushed that through last year to give them time to fully decide how many they wanted, guess they managed to get it delayed so they could turn it down this year.

While I imagine they could be opened up again if really needed that is quite a good argument, one that, if it were my country involved, would at least give me serious cause for thought rather than WTF do we need that for?

Alternatively: It's failed. Too goddam expensive, the F35 wins. It's kinda like the Challenger II/Abrams, I was all hurr hurr, better armour, better range, speed...WTF? twice the price?!? Uh...you don't fancy swapping 400 Challengers for 800 Abrams do yo?

 

[Goldbling]

obama seems like he is trying to ruin the nation

We cant spend 100 million dollars on THE MOST ADVANCED FIGHTER JET EVER MADE, but we can go right the fuck ahead and spend trillions of dollars trying to "fix" the economy not to mention that 1 B-2 bomber costs something like 1.2-1.3 BILLION dollars to make and we have many many more B-2's than we have F-22s

Im sorry but you obviously have no idea what youre talking about, its not a political issue here, dont let your bias get the best of you here.

and not to mention the U.S. retired the B-2 bomber, and why would he think we would have more if they cost more? We only built 12 when they first came around. Also I think a B-2 bomber is a better investment than a F-22 Fighter jet, when was the last time you saw a F-22 fighting another jet in mid-air?

 

[Manji187]

Why don't we just spend less money on giant fighter jets, and more on world peace?

Because if you want peace, you need to prepare for war. It's an endless paradox.

At the end of the day, somebody is going to want somebody else dead, whether it be over a dispute, or the fact that they just don't trust them.
I fear that there can never be World Peace, because Humans, by our very nature, are animals. We're savage, violent, and yet we have the power to make a difference. We can rationalize, and think things through. But we're still animals.

It's exactly because we got it in our heads that we're animals that we're having this much trouble...but we're a lot more than animals. We all are of the same species: human beings. I fear that we'll realise this only when it's too late.

 

[Panzer_God]

Why don't we just spend less money on giant fighter jets, and more on world peace?

Because world peace doesn't involve blowing shit up. If peace could be as exciting as war, you better believe that there would be peace. Achemidine, a roman philosipher said "Men will grow weary of women, drink, and dancing sooner then war" basically, war is exciting, peace isn't. that and we're golden.

 

[Panzer_God]

Don't blame Obama. Blame Bush Jr. deficit spending sending us so far into the pit that we've got to make up that slack somewhere. Fancy new jets are just one of the first thing to get the axe. You want jets so badly? Don't be in a hurry to get your taxes cut next time, seeing how they pay for them.

Oh, I agree. This $8 trillion quagmire we got ourselves into with Iraq fucked us. With all the money we spent on the war, we could build 10,000 F-22's, 20,000 F-35's, and 30,000 Mine resistant APCs, and still have money left over to give everyone free healthcare.

Yeah or we could just say "fuck all that" disarm our unneccesary weapons, end world hunger, cure AIDS, and give everyone in the world $10,000

 

[Panzer_God]

Don't blame Obama. Blame Bush Jr. deficit spending sending us so far into the pit that we've got to make up that slack somewhere. Fancy new jets are just one of the first thing to get the axe. You want jets so badly? Don't be in a hurry to get your taxes cut next time, seeing how they pay for them.

Ohh I love the blame game...

It gets really fun really fast, especially with something that has as many factors as the economy. I could literally pic anyone to blame, from presidents 20 years ago, to collage students, minorities, health care, military, people with loans, people without loans, the rich, the poor, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Irish. Heck I could even blame you or me.
and guess what, my argument would still be as valid as the next guy.

Because thats whats fun about the blame game, everyone can play it!

I blame the Jedi, those stinkin hypocrites, taking a religion based in peace and using it as an excuse to beat each other with plastic lightsabers.

 

[Kinguendo]

You had F-22's during 9/11, right? Hmm.

 

[curlycrouton]

This, coupled with the news that Obama has axed a plan to build a giant tank in the shape of a dragon. Unsettling times, friends.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

It's worth noting that the F-15 Eagle and its air-to-air variants (as opposed to the Strike Eagle) were also designed specifically as air-superiority fighters. Old? Yes, but so is the B-52 Stratofortress. Age does not diminish the effectiveness of the design.

One could certainly argue that the technology driving the F-15 is horribly dated, but this is the United States military we're talking about. Our nation has the most capable armed forces because when something begins to fall behind the times, we retrofit it in a less-expensive effort to keep that thing every bit as effective as it was back in its heyday.

I can guarantee that the F-15 is everything we could ever want in a bomber-intercept role, and would hardly get its ass handed to it in an escort/air-superiority role.

The F-22 is, without question, a colossally capable fighter, and is easily the best ever put into service (performance-wise, but it certainly comes up short in the manufacturing category). The only problem with that is, the cost is unbelievably high, even for such a hyper-sophisticated piece of machinery.

Our current air-superiority fighters are more than capable of dealing with whatever the rest off the world can throw at us. If it ain't broke, don't spend billions to fix it.

 

[WrongSprite]

It is almost certain that we wont be going to war with any nations with a decent air force for out entire life time.

Let's hope so. I've had a bad feeling about China for a while now. If their J-XX program ever bore any fruit, god help our pilots. And still, you should prepare to fight the war you're least prepared for.

We will never fight china and vice versa. We have too much money in each other to risk that. World powers will probably never fight each other again head on, proxy wars may become common place, as for full on confrontations it might never happen. Money and economics now speak louder than weapons between those nations.

Finally someone who agrees with me....I recently went to China, and it's not the military controlled dictatorship everyone says it is. They're just trying to get on with their lives...