Robot aircraft never disobey orders, consciensciously conscientiously object,

epluribusunum on April 22, 2009 at 4:51 PM

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Two very good reasons for manned weapon systems.

You guys are acting like there won’t be any F-22 fighters. We will have 187 of them. If we need more in the future, it’s not like we couldn’t order a few.

Get a grip, people.

Big S on April 23, 2009 at 2:09 AM

We will have 185 of them, assuming more aren’t written off in mishaps before production halts (as two already have been).

Once a production line is closed it’s closed. The costs of re-constituting the line (which isn’t just the final assembly line, but a massive supply chain involving dozens if not hundreds of sub-contractors and their personnel) and re-qualifying the necessary workers is so costly and logistically difficult that one might as well just spend a little more and begin the process from scratch with a newly-designed plane. There is no magical F-22 replication machine that can simply be turned on and off at will.

The F-35 is a good plane but I can’t believe that it will be as good an air to air fighter as the F-22. Maybe it will…

kanda on April 23, 2009 at 9:38 AM

It absolutely will not, and nobody from LockMart to Charlie Rangel has any delusions about that. It is less stealthy than the F-22, cannot supercruise, has a lower top speed, less range, and can carry half the number of AAM’s. It’s simply viewed as more economical and profitable, given that development costs and associated risks are shared between a large number of partner nations, and a huge volume of planes is expected to be produced. Nobody will ever claim it is an air-to-air platform even close to equivalence with the F-22.

On the bright side, at least there will be 185 F-22A’s around (two have already been written off). That’s 185 more than would ever have existed at all had Democrats had their way.

It helps to put all the words in.

OHV – nope, one of these – the most beautiful aircraft every produced by human industrial efforts.

Had a front row seat for the whole show. And in a way, my job was to blog it.

Heh.

Wind Rider on April 23, 2009 at 11:35 AM

Cool.

My job was to play in the mud and bi*ch about it. LOL

Went to your….I’m adding it to my favs.

Had a front row seat for the whole show. And in a way, my job was to blog it.

Heh.

So I take it you were flyin in one of those 52′s?

I’m on my 1st cup of coffee so I’m running a little right now.

Watching wave after wave, stick after stick of bombs lighting up on the desert floor in nice orderly patterns. . .

Wind Rider on April 23, 2009 at 10:22 AM

I’ll be in my bunk……LOL

Seeing films of the strikes is one thing, watching it live (from a safe distance of course) is something to behold and something you will never forget.

I’ve been told the results look like tilled earth, and sometimes strips of skin would be found hanging from trees outside the target area. True?

Count to 10 on April 23, 2009 at 10:12 AM

Yep.

I didn’t see any skin or body parts when we went in but the ground was ready for planting, after you filled in the big ass holes, and they were close to each other.

The area we called the strike in on was a line of tress, when it was over they were gone.

Watching wave after wave, stick after stick of bombs lighting up on the desert floor in nice orderly patterns. . .it’s no wonder that the IR satelites looking for SCUD launch plumes keyed so many false alarms those first couple of days, till the analysts figured out how to tell the difference.

I saw one when I was in Nam. It was BEAUTIFUL. Kind of gave you a warm fuzzy feeling all over, hell, I felt a tingle go up my leg.

Old Hippie Vet on April 23, 2009 at 10:06 AM

I’ve been told the results look like tilled earth, and sometimes strips of skin would be found hanging from trees outside the target area. True?

You had to be there when a 52 strike came by. It is indescribable. The ground literally shook all around.

kanda on April 23, 2009 at 9:31 AM

I saw one when I was in Nam. It was BEAUTIFUL. Kind of gave you a warm fuzzy feeling all over, hell, I felt a tingle go up my leg.

You had to be there when a 52 stike came by. It is indescribable. The ground literally shook all around. Awesome weapons system. Those were the days.

Targets? They sure were back in the 50′s and 60′s the ruskies had fleets of fighters waiting for the day the 52 might come. I don’t recall anymore but the 52′s were in the air 24 hours a day around the clock in case the ruskies hit us without warning over the pole. It was planned to be a suicide mission so we could hit back plus our subs with the polaris. No one expected the 52 to come back if war came. Thats why they stayed in the air around the clock to deter war. On the ground they would have been the first to be hit. The dawn of the nuclear age was a difficult time. The B52 is one of the reasons I think nuclear war never happened. It has never been replaced because there has never been a better bomber.

Those have been made before! Let’s just order ‘a few more’!!!

You guys are acting like there won’t be any F-22 fighters. We will have 187 of them. If we need more in the future, it’s not like we couldn’t order a few.

Get a grip, people.

Big S on April 23, 2009 at 2:09 AM

So, I’m guessing you also think that if you ever have a yen for a brand new 50′s DeSoto, that you’ll be able to find it on Amazon, and even get the overnight shipping, to have it in the morning, right?

Once those lines of production are shut down, and the tooling is scrapped and the experienced workers move on to other jobs – not so much.

What a frakkin dumbass.

You guys are acting like there won’t be any F-22 fighters. We will have 187 of them. If we need more in the future, it’s not like we couldn’t order a few.

This reminds me of the attempt of some of our Congressmen to cancel an advanced project that I was working on. They felt it was too expensive, too advanced and said that we should just stop the program and ‘put the information on the shelf’ for later use if necessary.

The capability to make something like the F-22 is not in the factories or the blueprints or the assembly lines, it is in the qualified people and their hard-earned ‘tribal knowledge’. Once these experienced engineers and skilled workers are laid off and dispersed, you cannot just go back and order a few more aircraft.

Well, go crazy.

coldwarrior on April 22, 2009 at 9:17 PM

SWEET. I only wish I could be there when the first one sets sail. (sunny Nebraska is a bit far from the nearest Navy port.)