The Accident report has been issued and they are calling it pilot error....
The Accident report has been issued and they are calling it pilot error. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/07/31/330479/f-22-crash-blamed-on-pilot-error.html
Render stealth useless in a very short time? Ha, I don't think so. Not only is our current stealth all but impossible to detect by anything but the most advanced and powerful radars ( at much less than their maximum effective ranges), but detecting a stealth plane such as the F-22 is not the same as getting a firing solution. That can certainly be done by the most advanced radars at very close ranges, but barring some miracle breakthrough in the next few years (quantum computing ? ), stealth is a LONG ways from becoming useless. And by the time our current stealth is 'useless' to advanced radar, we'll most likely be another one or two generations further along - lower RCS, newer RAMs, more advanced avionics, lower IR signatures. To say that stealth will be useless soon couldn't be more off. Please site a reputable source for this, because it sounds like a typical load of propaganda BS (the part about aggressors sneaking up on Raptors and the Pentagon telling them to knock it off.). Not only that, but the AIM-9 is an IR missile (short range) so yes, the F-22 would be vulnerable to an AIM-9 if an aggressor was able to get a shot off staring right down the tail-pipe of an unsuspecting Raptor, and the faster its going the hotter the engines will be so the bigger the IR signature for the missile to hit. In no way, shape, or form is this proof that stealth is just a "few years" away from being useless, especially since the Raptor will kill you BVR before ever having a chance to use your IR missiles.
The F22 is a total waste of money. The technology is terrific but is now pretty much obsolete. Because of the design parameters, the plane can't carry a lot of weaponery, and has limited storage for bombs, etc. Unless we have a use for it within the next 5, to 10 years, it will be obsolete sooner rather than later. Here is what is coming down the road: http://www.military-heat.com/43/russian-plasma-stealth-fighters/ It seems that although our stuff works better than anyone else's now it appears that we are being leapfrogged by this new type of technology. Imagine a huge bomber with much capacity, very fast, like a B2 that you can't see. That is what this is portending. Gates did the right thing in canceling this, because the game has changed since the design. Art
