Dave Majumdar’s aerospace blog on examiner.com illuminates some stunning omissions in the US Air Force’s upgrade plans for the Lockheed Martin F-22 fleet. My list of highlights from Dave’s recent interview with the F-22 SPO:
1. The first 34 F-22s can not be upgraded with the Increment 3.1 air-to-ground and electronic attack and Increment 3.2 advanced air-to-air and networking upgrades.
2. The next batch of 63 F-22s will be upgraded to carry eight small diameter bombs, but they can only attack two targets at a time. These aircraft will never be able to fire high off bore sight missiles, which are swiftly becoming the standard for aerial combat.
3. The final batch of 91 aircraft are programmed to receive both the air-to-ground and advanced air-to-air hardware, but these do not include helmet-mounted cuing, also standard kit for latest-generation dogfighters.
Link to Dave Majumdar’s column
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2009/06/the-f-22-cant-do-what.html
Just to say, before someone calls me a troll, a tiffy fan ect ect, I’m not any of those things. My country doesn’t make/fly/want any fighter jets…..sadly:(
I have no dog in this fight, just thought it was interesting.
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June 22, 2009 at 4:03 pm