Originally Posted by
steeltoe
The F-14 is the greatest fighter. and its didnt take the navy around 20 years to develop and put into service the F/A-18 E/F like the Air Force did with the F-22. lets face the it F-22 is a cold war aircraft. it never should have went in to service. Brock the closest you ever get to a aircraft is during an air show.
Frank...don't be dumb. The F-22 is using new technology that we were developing as we went along. Besides once it come off the drawing board, it only took about 6 years to get fully functional jets to the Langley flight line.
Why shouldn't it have gone into service? Maybe because the AF needed a new fighter considering the in service dates of the F-15/F-16 were the early 1970s and the latest generation of fighters from around the world were coming dangerously close to their performance, if no surpassing it. We had already gotten rid of the F-4 and F-111 in the 90s and that left us with very few options.
BTW...check the number of air to air kills and ground targets destroyed by the F-15 and I think you'll find it's better then the F-14. Still haven't lost one in Air to air combat either
Originally Posted by
roadrcr82
i am suprised that they plan on retiring the f117 in 2009 though. i guess it doesnt have enough work to do for what it costs to produce.
We stopped producing them in the late 80s. It's actually been in the AF inventory since 85 or so. It's just not a viable aircraft anymore since the B-2 can do everything the F-117 can with more bombs