Why do we need a 400 million a pop F-22 jet to blow up camels?

Quote from Max E. Pad:

...Turns out the F22 Raptor has a faulty oxygen system, thats so bad that these guys are going outside the chain of command and saying they dont want to fly it anymore until it is fixed....

I do not know the specifics on the F22, but generally speaking oxygen systems are not particularly sophisticated.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

I don't know the state of drone technology, but I know they can take G forces a human pilot can't stand. They can go on riskier missions. They are vulnerable to loss of communications I suppose, but so are piloted planes.

I don't buy the idea that one F-22 is superior to 50 drones in a typical air superiority mission. It's the same concept as why our highly sophisticated naval ships are vulnerable to Iranian attacks. They can defeat any ships Iran sends out there, they can defend against sea skimming missiles, but what they can't defend 100% is 100 sea skimming missiles coming at them.

I believe it was Stalin who observed that "quantity has a quality of its own."

I have mixed feeling on the Raptor. On the one hand I've seen/read where F22's are killing F15's and F16's 1/2 dozen and more at a time in training mock dog fights.
That is a pretty significant advantage. Whether it's worth the cost of a dozen times more, is debatable.

Should we ever go to war with another major industrialized country we'll need everyone of them. BUT, who is that going to be?
 
Not sure if you watched the video I posted, but thats precisely what makes the whole thing so troubling, you would think the military would be able to sort out the problem pretty easily....

Who knows, maybe these guys all have it in their mind that there is something defective, and they are all just suffering from the placebo effect.... either way you would think the military would be able to fix this problem, without telling these guys to go in the air and just keep flying until they can find a fix.....

Quote from Lucrum:

I do not know the specifics on the F22, but generally speaking oxygen systems are not particularly sophisticated.
 
The F-22 is just too awesome for human pilots to handle. It's like the bad ass GRX car in the Speed Racer episode that could be driven only after the driver was sprayed in the face with a potion that allowed him to handle the GRX's super speed. The negative side effect was that the potion caused thirst and after the driver drank water he became afraid of even pedestrian speeds. The situation with the F-22 may simply be a case of technology exceeding human capability.
 
Quote from Max E. Pad:

Not sure if you watched the video I posted, but thats precisely what makes the whole thing so troubling, you would think the military would be able to sort out the problem pretty easily....

Who knows, maybe these guys all have it in their mind that there is something defective, and they are all just suffering from the placebo effect.... either way you would think the military would be able to fix this problem, without telling these guys to go in the air and just keep flying until they can find a fix.....

I just watched the video. The oxygen system is more "complex" than most I'm familiar or have experience with. Rather than the usual and rather simple oxygen tank with pressurized oxygen they're using an oxygen generator on engine bleed air. I assume for reasons to do with "pressure breathing" at very high altitudes. I'm guessing a bit here, but I assume they went this route because of reduced weight, oxygen bottles are heavy, and less service is required during turn-arounds.

The Air Force, like most bureaucracies, worries too much about politics and "embarrassments" when they should be worried about just finding and fixing the problem. The Challenger disaster is a good example.
 
Quote from PiggyBank:

when was the last time we were in a war against a military equal? .

that is the point. since there is no military equal in the world i would say a long time. we should build military hardware to counter any real threat. we already have 5 times overkill with the fighter jets we have.
now if some other country, like china, ever builds something that could threaten us we could counter that threat but for now and the forseeable future there is no credible threat that we cant more than handle with the hardware we have now.
we still maintain 3 ways to destroy the soviet union, a country that does not exist any more.
 
Quote from Free Thinker:

that is the point. since there is no military equal in the world i would say a long time. we should build military hardware to counter any real threat. we already have 5 times overkill with the fighter jets we have.
now if some other country, like china, ever builds something that could threaten us we could counter that threat but for now and the forseeable future there is no credible threat that we cant more than handle with the hardware we have now.
we still maintain 3 ways to destroy the soviet union, a country that does not exist any more.

Dude its like you didn't even read my posts.. just because we haven't fought another capable opponent in recent history doesn't mean we shouldn't be prepared. That was my point. Also we don't have 5 times overkill with our current fighters, u keep exaggerating. Other nations have the same old ass fighters that we do, and many are designing next gen stuff NOW. Fighters are extremely important for defense, just look at Israel for example. There is so much other shit that needs to be cut out of the federal budget that this shouldn't even bear consideration at this point.

I don't know anything about oxygen systems, and this is the first I've heard about pilots not wanting to fly them. If the F-22 is in fact faulty then sure that would change my opinion on this specific aircraft (assuming it couldn't be fixed).
 
Quote from PiggyBank:

....If the F-22 is in fact faulty then sure that would change my opinion on this specific aircraft (assuming it couldn't be fixed).
Most likely it can be fixed, they just have to figure out what's wrong first.

Mechanical or electrical issues that are difficult to diagnose are actually pretty common.
 
Quote from PiggyBank:

Dude its like you didn't even read my posts.. just because we haven't fought another capable opponent in recent history doesn't mean we shouldn't be prepared.
what capable opponent? none exist.

you mean like the b1 bomber? we built them to deter russia right at the end of the need for heavy bomber era and have never needed them or really used them. the old b52s still do the heavy work even in iraq.
still we maintain 3 b1 bomber bases in the us at huge expense just incase we need to bomb russia. one of them is in my back yard. why do we need a b1 bomber base in the middle of south dakota?
you simply cant waste this kind of money preparing for the last war. its like a lawn service going out and buying a fleet of semi trucks to haul grass to the landfill when he has no problem getting the job done with pickup trucks.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

For once, I have to agree with Free Thinker. The generals in the Air Force resist giving up on the old paradigm of piloted planes. A lot of the brass were pilots and have their eyes on cush jobs with airframe manufacturers.

It's the same deal with the Navy. The admirals still want their big boats to play with, even if they would be sunk within minutes of the start of a war with China, the supposed reason for them.

One of the more disappointing aspects of the campaign season is that the republicans, other than Ron Paul, did not attempt to break away from this neo-con vision of more defense spending and more wars. Listening to them is depressing, whether it is an old fool like McCain or a new one like Rubio.
+1
 
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