The Raptor is dead.

[TheMatt]

snip

Our current Air Superiority Fighter, the F-15 Eagle, is coming up on 40 years old. That's fucking old. The first F-15s flew when Vietnam was still going on. Granted, no F-15 has ever been lost in an engagement with another plane, we might not have to lose them to an enemy fighter. Just a year and a half ago, the entire F-15 fleet had to be grounded for weeks, because one of the fighters broke apart in mid air [http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123074547]. I wish I was making this up; The plane literally disintegrated around the pilot. The next best jet we have, the F-16 Falcon, is only 5 years younger. We desperately need a replacement for our 1,100 Eagles, and 1,200 Falcons, and 187 F-22s, and 1,000 JSFs are not going to cut it.

Where does the super-hornet fit in here? Thing is practically brand new, no?

Not really. It's about 20 to 30 years old. Decent plane through.

I believe you are talking about the "F-18 a through D Hornet", the super hornet is E and F.

 

[ace_of_something]

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

Because Jets look cooler than a bookmobile.

 

[Cowabungaa]

First of all this:

It should be noted that they just re allocated funds for only 6 raptors. We have Raptors in the service already. It's not like they are mothballing them or anything.

and this:

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

also this:

It wsa designed to fight a war that will never happen now.

Yeah, North Korea by itself can't do anything, but it has a very big ally to the North that went to war against us for it in the past. And Russia has already invaded a nation because it felt threatened that it wanted NATO membership.

China is supporting NK less and less these days, they too are realising that Kim Jong Il is batshit insane. If NK ever even dares to launch an attack against SK or any other country, China will never support them. They have too much money in the USA (and the other way around) to piss eachother off properly. Russia is just 'lol' nowadays, yea they invaded Georgia, but that's like someone stepping on an ant. And ofcourse they too have too many important economic relationships with many Westren country's to risk a global war. Everyone right now is deep in someone else's ass, the world economy made the global community one giant clusterfuck. Wich is why we can barely do anything properly about crazy and dangerous rogue elements.

But do we need a super expensive air superiority fighter for those tiny rogue elements? No ofcourse not, we only need those things in WW3. What we really need for those things, are top-of-the-line special forces and policing units. If they spend the money they wanted to spend on those jets on special forces instead, I'd feel a lot more secure. What's a F-22 going to do against a splinter group who wants to bomb a flat? Nothing ofcourse. What can a couple of highly trained CIA officers and Green Berets do against them? A whole lot more.

 

[GodsOneMistake]

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!

Well in that case, I blame Hippo24 for racism everywhere!!! XP

 

[Wilfy]

Awww, Here was me thinking this was going to be about dinosaurs

You weren't the only one who thought that

 

[Music Mole]

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.

All it takes is North Korea deciding they don't like that nation to the south of them being free, or Russia deciding they don't like Ukraine being a NATO country. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but with all the hardliners in power across the globe, it's hard not to be.

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

Umm...just throwing this out there; We only have 19 B-2s...

Did you really just call north Korea a "super power". I lol'd.

 

[hippo24]

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!

Well in that case, I blame Hippo24 for racism everywhere!!! XP

Darn it, you found me out...

The economy was my bad guys,
Im real sorry.
It was my nonexistant racism that sucked the money straight out of banks vaults.

You wouldnt think somthing that doesnt exist could have such an effect on the economy, especially if its only one persons', but youd be surprised how heavily nothingness can burden our taxpayers.
Nothingness, and pretend racism, are really the biggest problems we have to face as a nation, and Im sorry I let you all down by not being racist.

again, my bad....

 

[GodsOneMistake]

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!

Well in that case, I blame Hippo24 for racism everywhere!!! XP

Darn it, you found me out...

The economy was my bad guys,
Im real sorry.
It was my nonexistant racism that sucked the money straight out of banks vaults.

You wouldnt think somthing that doesnt exist could have such an effect on the economy, especially if its only one persons', but youd be surprised how heavily nothingness can burden our taxpayers.
Nothingness, and pretend racism, are really the biggest problems we have to face as a nation, and Im sorry I let you all down by not being racist.

again, my bad....

Well at least somebody had the balls to say it

 

[olicon]

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.

Agreed.
Wars are fought because of economic gain of a nation. In old times, it's a land grab, or for hostage and ransom. Move forward a bit, and it's a resource grab. Now with so much of each nation's money piled on someone else's soil, they won't be so eager to start a war. The only nations that may have interest in starting a hot conflict (in opposed to a cold/economic/proxy war) are the ones entirely outside of the system, like say N.Korea. But they wouldn't have much to gain from it either. They can't win a war (traditional victory) by occupying someone else's land because they would be overpowered by every other countries. And they really wouldn't gain anything out of a total annihilation (nuclear war scenario) because the resources won't be useable--let alone the repercussion from everyone else that they failed to nuke in the first 10 minutes.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Spoiler: previous posts

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.

All it takes is North Korea deciding they don't like that nation to the south of them being free, or Russia deciding they don't like Ukraine being a NATO country. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but with all the hardliners in power across the globe, it's hard not to be.

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

Umm...just throwing this out there; We only have 19 B-2s...

Did you really just call north Korea a "super power". I lol'd.

North Korea isn't a super power, but it does enjoy the support of China. While China might not go as far as starting an armed conflict over North Korea, it is more than willing to play dirty. There are more ways to wage war than just dropping bombs and both China and Russia are more than capable of waging one particular type.

 

[irishstormtrooper]

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

Don't you know? America's policy is "World peace through superior firepower".

 

[Pimppeter2]

he is the commander in cheif. Obiously he knows a little more than the rest of us

 

[lwm3398]

that's funny, i have my f-22 model right here on my desk.

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.

exactly. you can't have world peace, as the muslims will still hate the jews, china and korea will still hate everybody, some will always hate someone. the only way to get world peace is to obliterate every country that's at war, nuke evil countries like china, and stop the production of all guns, ammo, tanks, jets, anything used for war.

 

[lwm3398]

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

Don't you know? America's policy is "World peace through superior firepower".

i live here, so i of all people know this.

 

[lwm3398]

Awww, Here was me thinking this was going to be about dinosaurs

You weren't the only one who thought that

i thought it was gonna be about a bio-engineered raptor, but it died. and they can do that. scientists are looking into it.

 

[Zersy]

Was it a good plane ? yes.
Was it useful ? when in the right scenario yes
Do we need it right now ? no

Right now i would like USA to stop spending shitloads of money on uneeded things and more on useful things

like...

1. Free Healthcare
2. Better Education
3. Envireomental protection
4. Medical Research
5. Better Hospitals
6. Better Benifits system
7. Technology for the home
8. New fuels
9. New cars
10. Bulldozing useless propety
11. Making better homes
12. Making a better Gas and Water system
13. Help to reduce Crime
14. Create more pretty things to look at
15. Better internet
16. Better Waste Disposal

God the list just keeps going on.

 

[TheMatt]

Was it a good plane ? yes.
Was it useful ? when in the right scenario yes
Do we need it right now ? no

Right now i would like USA to stop spending shitloads of money on uneeded things and more on useful things

like...

1. Free Healthcare
2. Better Education
3. Envireomental protection
4. Medical Research
5. Better Hospitals
6. Better Benifits system
7. Technology for the home
8. New fuels
9. New cars
10. Bulldozing useless propety
11. Making better homes
12. Making a better Gas and Water system
13. Help to reduce Crime
14. Create more pretty things to look at
15. Better internet
16. Better Waste Disposal

God the list just keeps going on.

Yah, but instead of the raptor what else could they spend it on?



haha, I'm hilarious.

 

[Clashero]

That probably means we (the Argentine Air Force) will finally be getting hand-me-down Raptors in some years. I mean, practically all our military planes except for the Pampas and the C-130 have been hand-me-downs from the more decent air forces.
Our AF is a pretty good image of where the US was at several decades ago. Our best fighters are A4 (we do have 2 or 3 Mirages, but they're too busy crashing).

 

[Nmil-ek]

Who gives a shit if we ever do have another major continental superpower war in our lifetime the decider will be who can ram how many missiles up each others arse without becoming a smouldering crater first. For every other small insurgent war the US military pretty much outguns everyone else that wants to raise voices and stamp feet seemingly.

 

[Captain Pancake]

oh dear...

what do i care, i'm from britain, we don't get F-22s, hell i don't even know what we get...