Quote:
Originally Posted by AvsJerk
For some reason, the public support was never there for the F-22 raper project...I still don't know why... 
Captain, I always enjoy your posts...especially when they concern military or firearms issues. You know your shiat and communicate it well. |
Thanks
The problem with the F 22 was two fold, first of all, the cost was originally supposed to be about $140 million per plane, however later calculations nearly doubled that estimate, so the Raptor was stopped at about 168 or about 10 complete squadrons. Second, while it does contain the ability to switch some of its missile carriages with bomb racks, its mainly a air superiority fighter, and future aircraft roles are really calling for multi-role low observable aircraft.
If I remember right, strategically its not the right time for the F-22, most of them have been deployed in Okinawa as the biggest rival right now aircraft wise is the Chinese, and the current strategy is to try to destroy as many chinese airfields as possible with cruise missile launches from submarines, which leads the way for air to ground action by the Americans, so its not expected that there will be a massive furball for air dominance in a war with China.
However China is in the midst of a massive military buildup based around power projection. There were fairly new photo's released of the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter that looks like a bigger version of the Raptor, however some think that its closer to the Russian abandoned Mig 1.42. the Chinese are also working very hard on land based anti carrier missiles that would allow them to secure the seaways between China and Tawain.
The Chinese are also frantically trying to build and deploy their own aircraft carrier, they did purchase the not completed Varaq which was part of the Admiral Kuznetsov class, Russia's attempt to complete a proper non ramped take off design based on what the American's do, they are probably using it as a design test bed, its more then likely that the Chinese will build VTOL version of the smaller carriers like the rest of the world uses but are still outclassed by the American super carriers.
The Chinese have also spent a lot of time upgrading their submarine fleet the American's literally pooped their pants about three years ago when a Chinese Song Diesel electric sub popped up in the middle of an American naval exercise within torpedo and missile range of an American carrier.
The newest operation sub is the type 093 sub which would be equivalent to an early flight 1 LA class sub, They also have 5 type 94 ballistic missile submarines that are decent but nowhere in the class of the American Ohio class, however this comes at a time when America is converting their ballistic missile submarines to other missions.
But the Chinese at one point focused on the ground element of their military thinking that they would face land based battles and defense missions, now they're working on the ability to project power into the pacific.
Anyways this is the wrong thread for military capabilities of China.