F-22's latest problem: Can't win over cheaper rivals in close-range fights

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Published time: August 01, 2012 15:10
Edited time: August 02, 2012 02:31

Mysteries remain as to why the US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor pilots continue to experience symptoms of oxygen deprivation in the sky, but now a new question is being asked: does history’s costliest jet compare with its half-price counterparts?

The United States has invested about $80 billion into its Raptor fleet, which, at only 187 planes, has cost the country around $420 million apiece and has become the most expensive addition ever to the Air Force’s arsenal. According to a new report published in the latest edition of Combat Aircraft Monthly, though, the state-of-the-art jet has failed missions that put it up against the Eurofighter Typhoon, a simpler aircraft utilized by German pilots that costs a comparable measly $200 million apiece.

"We expected to perform less with the Eurofighter but we didn't," German air officer Marc Grune tells the magazine. "We were evenly matched. They didn't expect us to turn so aggressively."

Although the advantageous of the Raptor jet aren’t exactly being brought into argument, the latest report suggests that in terms of close-range, one-on-one combat, the F-22 has failed to outmaneuver its German competitor. And while the long-range capabilities of the Raptor continue to be endorsed, being unable to claim victory in an up-close-and-personal fight with a plane from another fleet is an embarrassment the US Air Force doesn’t need right now.

The Air Force is standing by its multi-billion-dollar fleet, but the latest news regarding the F-22 doesn’t end there. After months of complaints from inside the military over hypoxia-like symptoms effecting Raptor pilots, the Pentagon says they believe the root of their problems isn’t in the jet itself but with the inflatable vest that pilots are required to wear. The Defense Department is now considering new equipment for its pilots that it believes will eliminate those symptoms, which have been blamed on at least one death, but not before grounding its F-22 fleet time and time again as investigators looked high and low for the culprit.

“We have looked at everything on that system [to] the nth degree, and the bottom line is that there’s no smoking gun,” Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle, a high-ranking Pentagon official, told the Air Force Times earlier this year.

Pentagon spokesperson George Little said last week that in regards to its fix targeting the pilot’s vests, “The Air Force is confident the root cause of the issue is the supply of oxygen delivered to pilots, not the quality of oxygen delivered to pilots.”

The Pentagon has yet to formally conclude that its adjustments will eliminate the complaints of hypoxia like conditions. Meanwhile, F-22 pilots are prohibits from flying the aircraft above 44,000 feet.

Comments (33)

Kikl (unregistered) 05.08.2012 21:34

1.: We are allies. The Eurofighter Typhoon will never fight against an F-22
2.: The fighters were tested only for their capabilities in dogfights. This says nothing about the performance of the F-22 beyond visual range.
However, it does show that the F-22 is not superior in all aspects. When it comes to classical dogfights, it is only on par or slightly inferior to the major rival, Typhoon.
3. The F-22 was built for dogfights.
"Once again, RT is telling only half the story. The F-22 is not meant for close up dogfighting."
Thi s is not true, since the F-22 was fitted with a gun for dogfights. Furthermore, the US airforce trains F-22 pilots in dogfights because they know that dogfights are not a thing of the past.
4. Historically, most successful attacks on enemy airplanes were not conducted from beyond visual range. It remains to be seen, whether stealth and radar are really going to dominate in an air superiority battle.
5. Do not judge an airplane on the latest electronic gadgets it carries. You can easily put a new ASEA radar into an F-16. There is no point in redesigning an airplane, if you merely wish to improve on the latest avionics.
6. Last but not least, do not underestimate the power of the sensors and rockets of the Typhoon. A new ASEAR radar (Captor-E) is going to be fitted to the airplane in 2015. In addition, the typhoon carries a highly sophisticated infrared sensor (PIRATE), which is not available for the F-22. The MBDA meteor is going to replace the american AIM-120 AMRAAM. Finally, the short range missiles for the Typhoon, AIM-132 ASRAAM as well as IRIS-T are already superior to the American sidewinders. If the contracting nations UK, Italy and Germany get their ... together, then they may incorporate thrust vectoring into the typhoon and a more powerful engine with 20% more thrust (EJ230) for the third tranch of typhoons.
http:// www.youtube.com/watc h?v=ss96tsbG5KY
P lease do not underestimate the Russian military aircraft. Both the mig 29 and Sukoi flankers, were superior to any plane in the west at the time they were introduced. We Germans know because we got a couple of Migs after the German reunification.

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Raptor1 (unregistered) 02.08.2012 20:36

George: You don't have ANY idea what you're talkin about. Jeremy: Inferior aircraft? You're kidding, right? The F-22 will dominate ANY aircraft out there. You ain't gunna see it from long range while it's targeting you... So unless you're foolish enough to take off directly underneath it, the engagement begins at LONG range... And guess what? NOONE, not even the Eurofighter pilots, has been able to offer up more than anything but an occasional shootdown of a Raptor when it's not flight-restricted (no vests = restriction; no high altitude = restriction; NO Long Range [BVR] = restriction). The article is foolish. You want me to believe that a radar using mech steered, 1970's tech can hold a candle to the Raptor's cutting-edge AESA with LPI tech; and that the radar can defeat the ALR-94 EW system that's insanely capable? And that an EF which its own pilots admit couldn't get within 20 miles of the Raptor w/o getting "lit up" is somehow gunna "force" a Raptor blistering in at Mach 1.8 into a silly gunfight?... Yeah, ok.

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JJ (unregistered) 02.08.2012 15:40

When a lot of these military things are made, it is made in the politician's
district that had the most power, NOT by what the best quality plane was.
So you wind up with junk like that, shiny, new, fancy junk. Thank God the
USA will be broke soon and a dust bowl, it's the only way all this corruption
and bullying of other nations will come to a stop, oh along with the USA doing
war crimes to Israel cause AIPAC paid them to invade 10 different nations,
which you see these Zionists on here that get paid to post for Israel say that
I have no proof of that. If that is true, how come there are videos of people
from AIPAC and other Zionist entities in the USA saying, actually boasting
exactly that.

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