If everybody had the opportunity to choose their own aircraft I don’t think the USN would have even gone for a JSF variant, it wasn’t their ideal aircraft. USAF and USMC would still go with a common CTOL/STOVL design however.

Never heard anybody call the F-15’s wings “weak” before, nor the F100 engine described as incredibly badly engineered. The early F100 had issues with compressor stalls and flame-outs but it was pushing the technological envelope.

So lets say that somehow a F-22 production restart happens. What sort of modernization of the avionics would we likely see? Side AESA arrays and an IRST sensor perhaps? Would the new software be based off the F-35’s code? Any change of modifying the airframe to fit more internal fuel?

Does anybody have any details on the ACF project that the French Air Force originally wanted instead of the eventual Mirage 2000? Like the Mirage F1 the Mirage 2000 seem to have come into existence through the failure of the French Air Force’s original plans.

I think France made a mistake in passing over the Mirage 4000 but I don’t see the Rafale as a mistake. As for a French 5th generation fighter I don’t think the money exists for it unless their government were to invest a lot more in defense.

I’m still in favor of the F-22 restart, budgets be damned! And the first new build Raptor to fly should buzz former DefSec Gates’ house at 3:00 AM.

Was the F-22B designation officially assigned to the once-planned two-seater F-22? Or is it available? Not that anybody even pays attention to the designation system anymore with stuff like F-35 and B-21…

The F-22 restart is somewhat of a wet dream. The production tooling was SUPPOSED to be preserved intact (reports suggest that mislabeling and missing tooling is a pervasive issue). You can’t just start building F-22’s without a hardware technology refresh, entirely new software (imagine adding new sensors and trying to update ADA software). By the time new F-22’s were rolling, the PCA program would have firmed up. But if it were viable to restart the F-22, it would be a welcome addition.

Chances are PCA or whatever they are calling the program now won’t be entering service anytime soon. Even accounting for the time spent upgrading the aircraft and reestablishing the production line new F-22s could be in service long before the first PCA prototypes which I’d be surprised to see before 2030 at this rate. I’d imagine that all of the work done for the F-35 could prove useful when designing such an upgraded F-22. Surely they don’t have to start from scratch this time with the software.

The odds are poor but it would be great for the USAF if there was an F-22 restart. In an ideal world the Navy could also get an aircraft with comparable performance rather than being stuck waiting for “6th generation”. Put some pressure on the industry to move fast. No 15 year development cycle.

So is this supposed to be CGI of their potential FCAS design?

and it was described as a very cumbersome job to finally get f-35 to top speed, and gas tank was bingo when it finally made it there.

IIRC the F-35B in question was trying to hit M1.6 in a limited area so it had to turn 180 degrees and unload several times, ensuring a rather cumbersome process.

I find it unlikely that the DSI is the main factor limiting the aircraft’s top speed. If the aircraft can do more than M1.67 why not see what it can do and then establish the operational limit? Why was it set so low as M1.6 anyway instead of M1.8 which is the same as the F/A-18 and Rafale I believe.