The F-22 Raptor will be retired. The most expensive fighter will go down in history
This is what my literary childhood friend Carlson said: I don’t play like that. No, really! For so many years we read, wrote, measured numbers, made predictions, hoping that this golden thing would depict something like that - and now, as they say, we all hit the tinsel with a wet rag.
“Hychnik”, that is, the F-22A Raptor begins its movement... well, yes, if Congress gives up, it will go to the morgue. That is, to the world-famous aircraft cemetery at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, where more than 4400 aircraft and 40 spacecraft are stored.
Congressmen are still holding the line, but the pressure of the US Air Force command is intensifying year after year and, as a result, there is a premonition that Congress will capitulate.
Ask, what did the leadership of the US Air Force want so terrible that the US Congress itself entered into a fight with them?
And they want to write off ALL F-22 aircraft. Not 32, like last year, but every single one, how many of them they have left.
The most expensive and harmless air fighters, two hundred of whom over 20 years of combat service won ONE aerial victory over the Chinese bubble, according to the plans of the US Air Force command, should be decommissioned and history.
In general, it is logical: if “air superiority” fighters have turned into budget fighters, the generals think quite normally. After all, every hour of Raptor flight costs a fair amount (the total cost of a flight hour is $44) to the US military budget, and although it is bottomless, it is by no means infinite. Alas.
Well, maintenance, although not the most labor-intensive (30 man-hours for 1 hour of flight), there were also more voracious aircraft in this regard (F-104, for example, 50 man-hours), nevertheless, the Air Force would like smaller and cheaper. Manufacturers promised to reduce man-hours by up to 19 as the aircraft was mastered, but something went wrong.
As a result, already 10 years ago everyone realized that the result was an “Armata”, that is, an ideal peacetime combat aircraft. Well, this is for participation in exhibitions, international forums, parades and other events that, if they cause damage, then only to budgets.
But the F-22 tried to avoid military conflicts. So, unobtrusively, in stealth mode, the Raptor flew around those places where it could flex its muscles. And where American pilots fought in inferior aircraft, the F-22 was “stealth” in the truest sense of the term. Nobody saw it even in local conflicts, with the exception of sorties as someone who knows: in 2015, one F-22 did take part in...
However, here it is better to give the floor to General Hawk Carlyle, head of the Air Force combat command in Operation Inherent Resolve:
“While in the air, the F-22 carried out its strike mission, but was also 'repurposed' five times during the flight, meaning its primary purpose had changed. The F-22 flew reconnaissance missions, tracking fighters on the ground, used its advanced sensors to redirect other aircraft and call for additional strikes, relayed data on its missions, and escorted bombers to their targets. During the flight, which lasted 11 hours, the F-22 required seven refuelings.”
This was on the AirForse Times resource in June 2015.
Well... you can tear up with emotion. Anti-tank shells should be made from these people... Khan tanks in the world would come to everyone. 11 hours in the seat, refueling seven times, completed so many tasks... I specially studied the original source, suddenly there was an error, and there were 6 things flying. No, one. But what a one! Like a plane, like a pilot. Sitting in the pilot's seat for half a day, it is not clear what to eat... although what kind of food, and where is the waste? So that by the end of the flight, everything around the waist will gurgle and splash fragrantly, right?
“Raptor” - excuse me, not the “Duckling” Su-34, which has a palm-sized kitchenette, a kettle, a microwave, and a sleeping place (one). There is also a dry toilet and two sanitary tanks from the Su-27. And there, in fact, the second crew member can take a nap for an hour if it’s a long-distance flight.
But it would be very informative to know how it all looked as performed by the Raptor pilot.
However, writing fairy tales and fantasy stories - Americans have always been strong in this. Apparently, Asimov’s spirit has descended...
But even while on display, the Raptor was nevertheless not the subject of deals with the allies. Even with those closest to you. Probably out of real fears of screwing up very badly in front of the allies for that kind of money. Although... the F-5 has taken up the baton and, while being sold, also does not fly for approximately the same reasons. It is very expensive for the Allied gentlemen to fly often on such a miracle of technology.
We saw him... in the sights!
Back in 2012, on the pages of the National Interest, which we respect, there was such an article, written, however, not by someone from the first link like Kyle Mizokami or Tyler Rogoway, but by some completely unknown man. The article said that the Pentagon supercomputer calculated that one F-22 could shoot down up to 140 4-4+ generation fighters during the conflict. And they even confirmed this with training battles against F-15 and F-16.
I remember that we then treated these frankly outrageous numbers with irony, although, of course, opinions were expressed that not 140, but about 10, one Raptor could shoot down. And it will still be a wow achievement. But again something went wrong.
Being a man knowledgeable in history aviation With a little more to do than the average person, let me suggest the following scenario: if you put an ace with tens of thousands of flight hours in the cockpit of an F-22, and yesterday’s excellent student cadet in an F-16, then, most likely, this will be the result. Recorded by outside observers, charts and graphs.
Why did I suddenly allow myself to think? Yes, because the F-22 was seen by EVERYONE who tried to do it. The French on Rafales, the Germans and Italians on Eurofighters, the Indians on the Su-30MKI, the Malaysians on the Su-30MKM, the Russians on the Su-35S. Ours also caught up in the skies of Syria and walked arm in arm.
In short, the invisible Raptor was seen by everyone who was not ordered to close their eyes. This is how it will be right.
In general, today everyone understands that invisibility turned out to be an extremely arbitrary matter and the term “stealth fighter” itself was replaced by the term “stealth fighter.” The essence is clear, the difference between invisible and inconspicuous is not worth chewing on.
But with the Raptor, it turned out that there was a certain overkill: an overly massive advertising campaign to intimidate opponents played the opposite way, and for the US Air Force it became the most dangerous thing to lose at least one aircraft.
But there were losses, as of 2022 the F-22 suffered 32 Class “A” accidents (aircraft crashes with death, loss of aircraft or damage amounting to more than $2), permanently losing 500 aircraft and 000 Class “B” accidents (accidents resulting in serious injury or damage between $6 and $50). In general, not so much, about 500% of the total number of aircraft in operation, but here we must remember that one Raptor costs almost 000 million dollars, and if you count R&D, then all of 2 million.
And if you use a calculator here (wow, the losses alone “weigh” 900/2100 million dollars, and this does not take into account operating costs!), then you understand that the F-22 poses the greatest danger only to the budget.
But, as they say, money is not the main thing, although in our case we are not talking about money, but about AMOUNT.
The main problem of the “Raptor” is that they began to hatch it in the last century, and when it was born, it was immediately outdated! As soon as elements of artificial intelligence began to appear and the ideas of network-centric battle control more or less resulted in something, it turned out that the F-22, which was created during the dawn of semiconductor technology, today is almost impossible to integrate into a modern battle control system.
No, of course, there is no talk of the Raptor being a cat that walks on its own. The aircraft is indeed quite capable, in theory, of performing combat missions at the level of “yesterday,” that is, without newfangled gimmicks like UAV control and rockets via satellites and all that stuff. It's a normal, even 20th century plane.
What can we say if the F-22 is deprived of the ability to independently transmit information through the Link 16 tactical data exchange system, which other American aircraft use? And how, those who are not yet in the know will ask, did he then guide someone there in Syria? And so, in the best traditions of the 20th century - by radio. It is clear that this immediately unmasked the Raptors, but there was no other option at all.
Well, the fact that savings deprived the F-22 of a sane optical-location station, this is especially sad in the infrared range. Well, the lack of side antennas, which limits the pilot’s visibility.
Such a chic advanced combat vehicle.
Modernization? Well, if we talk about a complete change of avionics and especially computers. So yes, perhaps that would be an option. Another question is how much money it would cost and what would be the outcome. And most importantly, the presence of the F-35 makes all this less meaningful. But there will be slightly lower numbers about modernization, everything will become more clear.
In general, the result is sad: the air superiority fighter has turned into a budget fighter. Invisibility turned out to be a fiction, and okay, if they saw their own, then no, strangers see perfectly well, and if the Russians see, then the Chinese, who have both a Sukhoi fighter and their own electronics no worse than the American ones, will see.
In general, speaking about invisibility/stealth, I want to note that such results, drawing the line under “invisibility,” are being done in the United States as well. Didn't take off. And it is very pleasant to state that the super-maneuverability of Russian aircraft turned out to be more effective than the American “invisibility”. Eventually. Speaking about the ideal aircraft of the future, it is worth predicting that it will be a super-maneuverable aircraft with stealth elements. Precisely with the elements.
So the fuss of US Air Force commanders is understandable. An expensive suitcase without a handle that destroys tons of dollars instead of causing damage to the enemy is not very pleasant. And the desire to get rid of this “miracle”weapons“, directed more against one’s own country, is understandable and explainable.
Why were politicians so zealous in defending the F-22 from the military? Well, let's put it this way: it was the crazy budgets that were approved in Congress. Almost 68 dollars (zeros specifically to understand the scale of the nightmare) is not a joke. The money is spent, but the “exhaust” is absolutely zero: the plane is not capable of its main tasks. That is, protecting US interests.
In general, against the general background of the constant “overflights” of the American military-industrial complex with all the superprojects (“Zamvolt”, “Independence”, “Freedom”, B-2 and so on), which consumed billions of dollars and went down the drain, the F-22 does not look like anything so outstanding. Everything is in the spirit of the times.
Puff!!! - and the billions were gone!
And in April of this year, the Air Force launched a new large-scale offensive against Congress, without which the F-22 will not be scrapped.
Air Force executive director of acquisition Andrew Hunter said maintaining 130 older F-22s would cost the same as buying about the same number of F-35s. These are, of course, strong numbers; Hunter, at a report of this level, most likely confirmed this with calculations.
He also announced that the next planned modernization of the F-22 will cost about $9 billion, and this is not the end.
But the main thing is that “Raptor” is no longer interesting to anyone, except, perhaps, manufacturers who can still earn a pretty penny on upgrades. Well, just to maintain the pants.
In this regard, the F-35 looks much more interesting. Yes, it is also not cheap in terms of operating costs, it is not without a lot of shortcomings, but they buy it, which brings money to a bunch of companies that contributed to its creation. Lockheed Martin also included Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Allison, British Aerospace, Skunk works, Aeronautical Systems...
Well, yes, half took part in the creation of the Raptor. The only question is the effectiveness of the project, but that’s the problem. Therefore, since 2009, there has been a quiet war between Congress and the Air Force, because the former are trying to force the latter to operate an aircraft for which a huge amount of dollars was paid, and the latter do not want to, because they received an aircraft from the previous century for 68 billion.
And in the United States there is already talk that the flight fate of the F-22 may break the record of shortness of another “invisible” aircraft, the F-117.
The fact that 32 aircraft of the first series will definitely be scrapped is not even discussed. Although the verdict of the Accounting Chamber of the US Department of Defense would make the hair on end even of impenetrable congressmen stand on end: “This modification has problems with operation, maintenance and training.”
It sounds, to put it mildly, brutal. That is, a plane worth 350 million dollars can only sit in a hangar without any problems?
It turns out that way.
Air Force representatives deciphered the verdict a little, and it didn’t sound more streamlined and understandable, but:
“Lack of funding will lead to the abandonment of the Block 20 (series produced from 1999 to 2004) as potentially dangerous and the most expensive to store and restore, and the inability to use them for training functions.”
It turns out that the Block 20 series, which, by the way, is 51 aircraft, is potentially dangerous and is not even suitable for use as a training aircraft?
In general, of course, it’s crazy: to use the most expensive aircraft in the world as a training one.
But the congressmen can also be understood: the billions they signed were supposed to fly to the glory of the United States right up to the 40s of this century, but in reality they really were lost halfway. And this is the same fighter that in all corners of the world was called the very best, although the opposite has already been proven so many times. But there’s nothing you can do about it, really, if you can’t prevent drinking, lead it. So Congress, as the main government body of the United States, is trying to do this.
That’s why the gentlemen of Congress are demanding the continued operation of the F-22, but it seems that making the Raptors fly is as impossible a task as teaching littoral ships to sail somewhere other than cutting. So decommissioning and destruction, as many say today, is really just around the corner.
Well, plus the planes that were destroyed by Hurricane Michael at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida in 2018 will have to be sent to the landfill. But in general the story there is funny because of its tragedy: two dozen F-22s from “Block 20” were, despite the weather forecast, simply left under concrete canopies.
Well, “Michael” had a lot of fun, simply scattering about 6 billion dollars around the base.
By the way, in our best traditions, no one was demoted in rank, no one was fired, no one really shed tears for the beaten Raptors. As I understand it, many in the Air Force crossed themselves with their left foot for joy.
Well, we finish off the topic again with news from the US Accounts Chamber. This body is highly independent, reports directly to the US Congress and deals not only with financial audits, but also with performance audits, that is, a broad audit.
So, an audit of the effectiveness of the F-22 showed that out of 163 vehicles listed in service, 18 are fully combat ready. There is no information about the combat readiness of the rest, but it is already clear that this secret will be kept tightly.
In general, this is the situation. Once the truth is conveyed to congressmen, they will understand that there are two planes. One, the F-22, is a stealth fighter, the best in the world, capable of solving any problem, a universally recognized fighter and a most dangerous enemy. The other is also an F-22, but this is an aircraft capable of destroying budgets. With a vulnerable coating that should absorb and scatter radio waves, which is afraid of rain. With very small fuel tanks and dependence on air tankers. With problems in detecting targets. With problems of interaction on the same networks “Link 16” and “Link 17”. This problem was partially solved in the “Block 35” modification; again, the issue is price and efficiency, and efficiency is lower than that of the F-16.
In general, Congress is unlikely to be able to hold the line, protecting planes that no one needs anymore. And alas, the “best invisible man in the world” will go down in history. It’s a pity, because he’s such a successful invisible man that we couldn’t see his power and combat successes.
Yes, of course, there was the Chinese bubble. And it burst, just as the myth that the F-22 Raptor was the strongest fighter in the world burst. A beautiful fairy tale, although the ending is not written in the style of Hans Christian Andersen, but rather it was written by Giambattista Basile. This, if anyone doesn’t know, is a Neapolitan writer, the real author of “Cinderella”, “Puss in Boots”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Rapunzel”, it was he who was torn apart by the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. Very much softening (yes, that’s right!!!) the plots. So that children can read them, simply shaking in fear, and not becoming stutterers.
In general, alas, we will miss the Raptor. In general, the course taken by the American military department to get rid of all the rubbish that they have built over the past decades is a little alarming. What if they suddenly came to their senses?
But I think there is no reason to worry. They'll come up with something, they'll definitely come up with something else. Shouldn’t we leave the good American guys at Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman and other well-known and not so well-known companies without work? Well, this is somehow not gentlemanly. So we still have more than one series ahead, I can smell the budget.
And the toothless “Predator” will retire to that very world-famous air base. That’s where he actually goes.
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