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Originally Posted by tycho102
The F-22 is far from a "replacement".
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I'm still trying to figure out where you come up with this idea. I looked for evidence to the contrary, and came up short. It turns out it is far 'more' a replacement. My only thoughts are - we already have a squadron of F-117's... Anyway, from my notes:
Stealth RCS:
According to the Russian engineers that pulled the downed F-117 apart, they estimate RCS to be about .01 - the exact same RCS as found on F-22, so neither has an advantage there. I can tell you the mixture of materials as used on F-22 is a hell of a lot easier to maintain that the RAM coatings as found on F-117, and it is not vulnerable to water or moisture in the air.
Speed:
F-117 is Subsonic only. F-22 has Supercruise of at least Mach 1.5 (The minimum for the design requirement, and considering an F-22 in military power can out accelerate an F-15C in full afterburner means it is probably much higher) giving it the capability to be on target and out of enemy airspace twice as fast, as well as giving the enemy half as long to react considering they know it is there.
Range:
F-22 - 1800 to 2000 mi with internal fuel (non-supercruise), and 2800 mi with drop tanks. F-117 range is at 535 mi.
Internal only weapon payload:
F-117 - 2 LGB's. F-22 - 2 JDAM's along with 2 AIM-120C's and 2 AIM-9X's and GAU-4 Vulcan 20 mm cannon giving it the ability to go Air to Air even inroute to target and giving it the ability to give aid to other NATO aircraft at any time without jepordizing itself - a capability the F-117 doesn't have at all.
In the air to air mode, 1 single F-22 took on 6 F-15's at the same time alone, and after several sorties, the F-15 pilots gave up even trying to fight since it became more of a game to simply survive for longer than 2 minutes than to even bother about fighting it. They all died (vuirtually only) over and over again.
Avionics:
I won't even get into this, but the F-22's ability to share information with AWACS and other surrounding NATO aircraft and the ability to use its active aperture, electronically-scanned array (worth its weight in gold by the way - litterally - it is that expensive!) with little chance of counter detection is something the F-117 is completely lacking. THe one thing the F-117 has going for it is some sort of secret LGB designator that is supposed to be very accurate as compared to other fighters/bombers.
I tired of typing. Basically, the F-117 doesn't really have anything on F-22 that I can find which is why I questioned that statement. If you want more, I can keep going.
-S