By 2009 the u.s government had turned
against the fighter and only 187 were
produced. What happened to the F-22 program and
why?
There's little doubt. The F-22 raptor is
the greatest air superiority fighter of
its time. The problem was that the fighter's
development went on for so long that its
primary adversary, the soviet air force
went out of business.
The F-22 also collided with current
events, as the economic demands of wars in iraq
and afghanistan and the lack of a peer
adversary made a $300 million fighter
plane, in the view of government
officials at the time, an unsustainable
cost.
An economic recession nearly a
depression that began in 2008 and only
ended in 2010 was clearly another reason. The F-22 raptors story begins in the
early 1980s. Eager to maintain america's edge in air
superiority fighters, the u.s air force
began looking for a replacement for the F-15C Eagle.
In 1990 a fly-off between the northrop YF-23 and the lockheed martin YF-22
resulted in the service choosing the YF-22, later renamed the F-22 Raptor as a
future cornerstone of american air power.
Early on, the U.S air force believed that
750 of the new fighters would cost
approximately 26.2 billion dollars at 35
million dollars per plane. By 1990 with the cold war virtually over
the george herbert walker bush
administration trimmed dubai to 648
aircraft.
By 1997 that number dropped again to 339
and by 2003 the number had been trimmed
again to 277. In 2009 that number was cut again to 187
plus eight testing and development
aircraft and the production line was
terminated.
The program's path to deployment was a
long one too, the advanced tactical
fighter project which begat the f-22
raptor began in 1981. The Raptor's first flight was in 1990
and the aircraft achieved initial
operating capability in 2005.
By comparison, the F-15 Eagle went from
design selection to first flight in
seven years from 1965 to 1972 and
achieved initial operating capability in
1976.
In other words the F-22 took more than
twice as long to develop than the F-15. During that time the soviet union went
from competing superpower to the dust
heap, dissolving in 1991.
The mighty soviet air force was broken
up among the surviving republics and
fighter development in the newly formed
countries was restricted to upgrading
existing designs, such as the Mig-29 and Su-30.
Few in number and flown by pilots with
minimal flight hours during the lean
economic years of the 1990s, they
presented no compelling reason to rush
the F-22.
The F-22 also gained an error to ground
capability during this time, extending
its usefulness. The F-22 was also a victim of the wars
in iraq and afghanistan.
The immense cost of supporting two
low-intensity conflict wars
simultaneously, made expenses for
fighting a pure competitor who didn't
actually exist at the time, difficult to
justify.
The F-22 which was not deployed to Iraq
or Afghanistan was frequently depicted
as in a budget battle against weapon
systems vital for the wars the United States was actually fighting. The lengthy development period also put
the F-22 in indirect competition with
the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Although different aircraft designed for
different roles the F-35 was a cheaper
aircraft with similar and in some cases
greater capabilities than the F-22 and
it apparently played a role in defense
secretary robert gates recommending F-22
termination. As Robert Gates did so he recommended
accelerating the F-35 program instead.
Robert Gates predicted that the united
states would have 1700 F-35s by 2025 a
number that given the cost overruns and
delays of the controversial program, the
pentagon is unlikely to meet. The F-22 raptor was done in by a number
of factors but perhaps the underlying
reason was the program dragged on for so
long, it was exposed to greater risk of
being undercut by current events.
The literal combat ship which 10 years
after development began is still
equipped with just 157 millimeter cannon
is headed in the same direction. The F-22 wasn't the first wonder weapon
to face an early end and it won't be the
last.
