Just Do It!

After closing the F-22 production line and struggling to produce a workable F-35, the Air Force now wants to move on and develop a "next-generation fighter" while proposing to buy old technology fighters like the F-15 designed in the 1970s to fill the gap in the real world while the newbies are developed. Well excuse me but it seems to me that the job of the Air Force is to design and build the best fighters in the world and actually put them in the hands of our pilots to keep the enemies of this country at bay, not just endlessly plan to do so. After the sorry track record with the F-35, why would anybody believe that the Air Force is capable of developing a new fighter that actually works? 

Until that question is answered satisfactorily, perhaps the best and most cost effective answer is to re-open the F-22 line and roll out  a lot of them to line units. That is exactly what the attached article proposes to do. 

The author says that the F-22 has gone through its teething period and there is no better fighter in the world, existing or planned. This is consistent with pilot reports. The few known deficiencies could be remedied in the new version, the F-22D as it were. The development costs have already been incurred, there is no need to re-tool the manufacturing process and the testing has been accomplished. 

I concur - let's quit screwing around and get an aircraft that actually works into the hands of as many of our pilots as possible. These are dangerous times and they (and we) deserve the best - now.


theaviationist.com/2016/03/30/heres-why-the-u-s-should-restart-the-f-22-raptor-production-line-instead-of-developing-a-sixth-generation-fighter/