- Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates
- Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates
 |
| F-22 Raptor |
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.
(rt)
Pakistan Cyber Force
No comments:
Post a Comment