PA5COR
08-03-2012, 11:43 AM
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/f-22-fighter-loses-79-billion-advantage-in-dogfights-report/
The United States has spent nearly $80 billion to develop the most advanced stealth fighter jet in history, the F-22 Raptor, but the Air Force recently found out firsthand that while the planes own the skies at modern long-range air combat, it is “evenly matched” with cheaper, foreign jets when it comes to old-school dogfighting.
The F22 Raptor already has mysterious, potentially deadly oxygen problem (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-22-raptor-flyers-family-demands-truth-air/story?id=16253815)s with the planes — problems that the Pentagon believes it has since solved (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/air-force-confident-22-raptor-fighter-problem-solved/story?id=16845990#.UBaul2FQ6Ag).
In some missions missions designed to test the F-22 in a very specific situation – close-range, one-on-one combat – the jet appeared to lose its pricey advantages over a friendly rival, the Eurofighter Typhoon, flown in this case by German airmen.
“We expected to perform less with the Eurofighter but we didn’t,” German air officer Marc Grune said, according to Combat Aircraft Monthly (http://www.combataircraft.net/). “We were evenly matched. They didn’t expect us to turn so aggressively.”
Pfeiffer said, referring to the point at which fighters engage in close-up dogfighting, “in that area, at least, the Typhoon doesn’t necessarily have to fear the F-22 in all aspects… In the dogfight the Eurofighter is at least as capable as the F-22, with advantages in some aspects.”
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Air Force, Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, told ABC News that one-on-one combat is only one way to evaluate an aircraft’s capabilities and said it’s not “necessarily the most relevant to every scenario.”
The F-22 is the single most expensive fighter jet in history at a total acquisition cost of an estimated $79 billion (http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/589695.pdf) for 187 planes, meaning each plane costs approximately $420 million. Estimates for the Eurofighter Typhoon – the premier fighter for several allied countries including the U.K., Germany and Italy – put that plane at just under $200 million each, according to an April 2011 report by England’s Public Accounts Committee (http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/mod-typhoon/).
The United States has spent nearly $80 billion to develop the most advanced stealth fighter jet in history, the F-22 Raptor, but the Air Force recently found out firsthand that while the planes own the skies at modern long-range air combat, it is “evenly matched” with cheaper, foreign jets when it comes to old-school dogfighting.
The F22 Raptor already has mysterious, potentially deadly oxygen problem (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-22-raptor-flyers-family-demands-truth-air/story?id=16253815)s with the planes — problems that the Pentagon believes it has since solved (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/air-force-confident-22-raptor-fighter-problem-solved/story?id=16845990#.UBaul2FQ6Ag).
In some missions missions designed to test the F-22 in a very specific situation – close-range, one-on-one combat – the jet appeared to lose its pricey advantages over a friendly rival, the Eurofighter Typhoon, flown in this case by German airmen.
“We expected to perform less with the Eurofighter but we didn’t,” German air officer Marc Grune said, according to Combat Aircraft Monthly (http://www.combataircraft.net/). “We were evenly matched. They didn’t expect us to turn so aggressively.”
Pfeiffer said, referring to the point at which fighters engage in close-up dogfighting, “in that area, at least, the Typhoon doesn’t necessarily have to fear the F-22 in all aspects… In the dogfight the Eurofighter is at least as capable as the F-22, with advantages in some aspects.”
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Air Force, Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, told ABC News that one-on-one combat is only one way to evaluate an aircraft’s capabilities and said it’s not “necessarily the most relevant to every scenario.”
The F-22 is the single most expensive fighter jet in history at a total acquisition cost of an estimated $79 billion (http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/589695.pdf) for 187 planes, meaning each plane costs approximately $420 million. Estimates for the Eurofighter Typhoon – the premier fighter for several allied countries including the U.K., Germany and Italy – put that plane at just under $200 million each, according to an April 2011 report by England’s Public Accounts Committee (http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/mod-typhoon/).