What I don't understand is, we canceled the F22 back in 2009, because it was too expensive. This is from Defense Review article at the time-
"So, what’s wrong with cancelling the
Raptor? Well, for one thing, we finally got the production cost down to approximately $143 million per aircraft. If they cancel the F-22 program at 187 total aircraft–56 aircraft short of the 243 aircraft the U.S. Air Force had stated as its requirement–the F-22 Raptor will really come in somewhere around $350 million apiece, with the last four aircraft coming off the line at an estimated cost of approx. $200 million per, due to the $147 million “end-of-production expenses” that will be rolled into their procurement price. Understand that the Air Force originally wanted 750 aircraft, but they wittled that number down to 442 aircraft, then 381, then 243, and then 183, before bring that number back up to 187.
This leads us to the second reason why
F-22 Raptor program cancellation is a bad idea. Strategically, 187 F-22 Raptors simply isn’t an adequate number for a future war against China and/or Russia, and the
F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), also made by
Lockheed Martin, simply doesn’t have the Raptor’s air-to-air combat capability, so it can’t fulfill the same air-superiority role against the latest Russian fighters, let alone their Gen-5 fighters that are currently either under development or on the drawing board–and Russia likes to export their fighters. DefenseReview would therefore feel much more comfortable with a quiver of at least 1,000 Raptors–preferably half of them in two-seat “Super Raptor” form–for a war against the Dragon and/or the Bear. Both countries (China and Russia) are currently developing low-observable, supermaneuvarable 5th Generation fighter aircraft–like the Russian
Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA, for example–and Russia’s latest 4th-Gen. Sukhoi and MiG aircraft currently being manufactured and exported to other countries are arguably superior to our latest F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft in a number of aspects."
http://www.defensereview.com/f-22-ra...iew-weighs-in/
So 6 years ago, the F22 was too expensive, now 6 years later, still in debt up to our eye balls, suddenly we can afford the F35? Wonder what Congress is smoking anyway!!
If you got into a Senators face about this, he would simply say "Obviously, you don't know how Congress works!" Well, obviously there are over 400 on Capital Hill, who don't have a stinking clue either! They have gone from serving the people to turning into a bunch of corporate whores!
Problem with that though, is the American tax payer is the one being screwed over!