People bitching about the 0.7% of a program that was wasted rather than considering the value-add of the other 99.3% is the story of every single jackass commenter who has never had to handle a large project in either the public or private sector.

You have cause and effect mixed up. F-35 isn’t crowding anything out. The budget has been squeezed, and the F-35 has been one of a handful of programs which has been least affected.

Because people bitch about the F-35 being too expensive, and the F-22 costs 40% more per unit ($126.1M for F-35A, $207M for F-22A, apples-to-apples, in current year dollars).

F-22 can’t actually do 4x5000. Unfortunately, the outer hardpoints would stress the wing too much at that weight at any reasonable G-load. This is why you NEVER see F-22’s with 4 external tanks, even though it has the plumbing for it.

Actually, scratch the part where the F-22 kinda wins on cost when you cherry pick the data. I didn’t adjust for inflation. $180M in FY2007 dollars (the quoted figure above) is $207M today, so even in the most generous of comparisons, the F-22 is STILL $25 million more than the most expensive F-35.

Christ, you people have such strong opinions on things you know so little about.

Huh? Marines use the same training aircraft as the Navy. In fact, I don’t even think the Marines even own their own basic training ships. They use Navy T-6Bs.

Yeah...the USAF did NOT make the wrong call on that.

Lots of hyperbole and nonsense here.

It is not, and was never, cheaper than the F-35. Tyler links to a General who stated that the last F-22 cost $87 million. That cost, which is well documented, does not include the engines or avionics, which add over $45 million to the cost of an empty airframe. That’s over $130 million all-in (closer to $140 million…

The F-22 was by many accounts on the verge of a cost breakthrough that would have sent its unit cost plunging well below the $100 million line. Gates later said:

A “capital ship” is the centerpiece of a fleet. Literally the same as how a capital city is the center of a state. It’s where leadership is located and the escorts around it exist mainly to support the mission of the capital ship. Unlike escorts, they are almost never commanded by anything less than a captain.

Nope. Been using this name for the better part of the year. YOU’RE SO VAIN I BET YOU THINK THIS SONG IS ABOUT YOU.

You’re not good with humor, or at least bad with ambiguity. Saying you’re serious does not mean you’re actually serious. That statement can even be part of the joke. In fact, few things are funnier than people who take ridiculous statements at face value.

Yeah...we’re not going to war with Russia or China. Not happening, because there’s NOTHING ON EARTH that’s worth the risk of nuclear war. Not Syria (lol, no). Not even Taiwan. So the F-15/F-22 combo just has to be better than whatever 2nd rate equipment Russia/China is selling to the third world. They always keep the…

1) No, the Raptor cannot supercruise at 60,000 feet. It’s dry thrust ceiling is roughly around 53-54,000 feet. It’s not even be supersonic at that height. It can go above that, but needs to use afterburners. Supercruise ceiling is somewhere around 48-49,000 feet.

Are you not a fan of reading comprehension, or are you deliberately trying to move the goalposts? You’ve yet to post anything Raptor-specific, and that IS the topic, not whether or not stealth in general makes IADS more manageable.

That’s only true if you’re interested in an airframe ($88 million) and ONE of the engines ($10 million each) and zero avionics to control either. The F-22A’s lowest flyaway cost was $136 million ($180 million including support costs). That $136M is in 2007 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $156M for the plane…

You really shouldn’t insult the math skills of other people when you don’t even understand that $740 million (the ACTUAL flyaway cost of a B-2, which doesn’t include amortized R&D) is way, way more than $300 million.

WTF do you think the DoD was doing for all of the 90’s and the bulk of the 2000s? They curtailed B-2 production, delayed the F-22, and kept the JSF on the backburner while they poured money into the F-14 ‘Bombcat’, F-15E, F-16 Block 50/52, A-10C, and B-1B conventional weapons suite?