Quote:
Originally Posted by T@T
The F-22 and F-35 are vastly different with different roles, the raptor was cut short because of it's high cost but only after 180+ were built. The development of the F-35 had nothing to do with it.
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That's debatable. The F-35 was all and truly in the pipeline and promising the moon when F-22 production was shelved in 2007 (production ended in 2011). While the total cost, including development and testing of an F-22 is shockingly high (339-412 million per aircraft, depending on who's estimate you believe) the actual per-plane cost in 2009 was down to about 140 million. Still really high, but every additional plane that rolls off the line makes the program overall more cost-effective.
The ultimate goal of the F-35 is for the flyaway cost to be around 80 million, though they're still a long way from that, and the first squadron was finally declared ready this July.
Between 2011, when construction stopped and 2015 when the very first F-35s were declared ready, they could have rolled another 100 F-22s off the production line.