167 aircraft delivered from a total of 750 orders
(WAPA) - The 2012 concludes one of the most ambitious project in US Air Force's history: the fifth generation fighter aircraft F-22 Raptor. The last of the 167 Raptors of the American air fleet was delivered in March, and the press published today 2 April 2012 an interesting data report if compared to the current situation which involves the international opinion about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project.
The US Air Force planned the purchase of 750 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor aircraft but much political debate brought a heavy reduction of the project. The debate started around 2004 during the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and came to a head in 2008 when the USAF top leaders Michael Wynne and Michael Moseley were fired.
The Department of Defense was convinced that air combat was a relic of the past, The F-22 was "Too much" in an era when most wars would be fought against small armies, a role where UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) are best.
For this reason the former minister of defence Rumsfeld influenced the Department to adopt the F-35 project which plans the replacement of many different aircraft with a single multi-purpose airplane (the name "Joint Strike Fighter" comes from this). Moreover, the American Defence Department was convinced that Russia and China, main competitors in technology, were far behind in developing similar projects; "The feeling was: why do we need to spend more money? We just need to be more advanced than them, we don't need to be so far advanced".
To be noted, the F-22 was the less-technological choice during the tender: the Northrop prototype YF-23 had won all the trials but the F-22 was selected due to its "Lower cost".
This situation recalls what is happening today over all the versions of the F-35 aircraft. Many countries (Italy included) have already made a U-turn on their decision to purchase the "B" version of the F-35 (the most technological one). It is still unknown if the cost of the "A" version (the standard one) will would rise again in future in spite of Lockheed Martin declarations.
The US Air Force planned the purchase of 750 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor aircraft but much political debate brought a heavy reduction of the project. The debate started around 2004 during the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and came to a head in 2008 when the USAF top leaders Michael Wynne and Michael Moseley were fired.
The Department of Defense was convinced that air combat was a relic of the past, The F-22 was "Too much" in an era when most wars would be fought against small armies, a role where UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) are best.
For this reason the former minister of defence Rumsfeld influenced the Department to adopt the F-35 project which plans the replacement of many different aircraft with a single multi-purpose airplane (the name "Joint Strike Fighter" comes from this). Moreover, the American Defence Department was convinced that Russia and China, main competitors in technology, were far behind in developing similar projects; "The feeling was: why do we need to spend more money? We just need to be more advanced than them, we don't need to be so far advanced".
To be noted, the F-22 was the less-technological choice during the tender: the Northrop prototype YF-23 had won all the trials but the F-22 was selected due to its "Lower cost".
This situation recalls what is happening today over all the versions of the F-35 aircraft. Many countries (Italy included) have already made a U-turn on their decision to purchase the "B" version of the F-35 (the most technological one). It is still unknown if the cost of the "A" version (the standard one) will would rise again in future in spite of Lockheed Martin declarations.
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