Cancelling the F-22 Fighter is Worse than You Think

[ABNAK]

An interceptor to take out Bears and Backfires. Why in God's name would you dogfight the thing? That was part of my point, failed to specify which modality. The turning isn't an airframe issue, its a physics issue. Yeah, I get that, hence my comment about not being a "fighter". How many SR71s were shot down? Do you think that they weren't trying to? Saying it wouldn't make a good interceptor is like saying the Viper isn't a good fighter because it doesn't do Mach 3.3 at 85,000 feet- oh, what a failure...

I guess we need to differentiate between a "fighter" and an "interceptor". The latter might have been possible, the former not so much. It was my bad for lumping the two together, but one would be a fool to suggest a jet-era "dogfight" was in the SR71's wheelhouse. Could it have popped incoming bomber formations from on-high? Absolutely. Twist and turn with a MIG-21 or 23? Ain't happening.

[Diamondback]

F-106 Delta Dart did pretty well in both... could do straight-line speed, and the Navy was ROYALLY pissed when some of their brand-new Tomcats decided to hassle with a couple of "those old relics" and the fighter squadron commander released a gunsight pic that showed one of his Sixers having gotten his pipper right on the Tomcat jock's helmet. BOOMHEADSHOT, bye-bye-F-14 if it had been for real.

F-12 gameplan for Fishbed or Flogger? Simple, smoke 'em with LRAAM's before they can get into their own weapons range. If a half ton (edit, glitchy math memory) will tear a B-47 apart on impact, imagine what it'll do to a "missile with a man in it".

[Pacific5th]

I remember reading something years ago about the F22. Someone was asked if they were worried about a foreign party hacking the systems. The guy said no way. You would have to know DOS or some other old ass operating system. And theirs was like a decade ago I heard that. So I absolutely believe it when I read about how outdated some of the systems are. That being said I could see it from my house a few years ago when they had the F22 demo at Fairchild for the air show. Some of the stuff the pilot was doing was absolutely incredible.

[WillBrink]

I guess we need to differentiate between a "fighter" and an "interceptor". The latter might have been possible, the former not so much. It was my bad for lumping the two together, but one would be a fool to suggest a jet-era "dogfight" was in the SR71's wheelhouse. Could it have popped incoming bomber formations from on-high? Absolutely. Twist and turn with a MIG-21 or 23? Ain't happening.

It would be a pure interceptor and if it did well, never see a dogfight. What's the top operational ceiling of modern fighters, 50-60 thousand feet? When an aircraft has 30k ft higher ceiling and doing at least a 1 mach faster or more than anything else, and superior electronics to detect and respond, and integrated targeting with satellites and drones, that seems quite a package. We'd still need air superiority fighters too for what ever gets passed the SR71's. We know they been working on Ram Jets/Scram jets that will fly higher and a lot faster then the SR71, but I'm assuming intended as same role as the 71 (intel gathering) or long range bombers.

[WillBrink]

I guess we need to differentiate between a "fighter" and an "interceptor". The latter might have been possible, the former not so much. It was my bad for lumping the two together, but one would be a fool to suggest a jet-era "dogfight" was in the SR71's wheelhouse. Could it have popped incoming bomber formations from on-high? Absolutely. Twist and turn with a MIG-21 or 23? Ain't happening.

It would be a pure interceptor and if it did well, never see a dogfight. What's the top operational ceiling of modern fighters, 50-60 thousand feet? When an aircraft has 30k ft higher ceiling and doing at least a 1M faster or more than anything else, and superior electronics to detect and respond, that seems quite a package. We'd still need air superiority fighters too for what ever gets passed the SR71's. We know they working on Ram Jets/Scram jets that will fly higher and a lot faster then the SR71, but I'm assuming intended as same role as the 71 (intel gathering) or long range bombers.

[Diamondback]

It would be a pure interceptor and if it did well, never see a dogfight. What's the top operational ceiling of modern fighters, 50-60 thousand feet? When an aircraft has 30k ft higher ceiling and doing at least a 1M faster or more than anything else, and superior electronics to detect and respond, that seems quite a package. We'd still need air superiority fighters too for what ever gets passed the SR71's. We know they working on Ram Jets/Scram jets that will fly higher and a lot faster then the SR71, but I'm assuming intended as same role as the 71 (intel gathering) or long range bombers.

SR WAS designed with a tactical-nuke bomber variant they even built a structural engineering mockup of it. This was the platform that "one ton of tool steel" KEW I mentioned previously was designed as part of.

[hoopharted]

not really surprised , 6th gen stealth are almost perfected , allot are dong away with vertical surfaces and are utilizing articulating engines that allow them to crawl through the air and shoot to mach in seconds , they can nearly stop on a dime in mid air and then continue on , retractible armaments , you should watch the YT vids on them

[lowprone]

Everything the government does is a disaster !

[WillBrink]

not really surprised , 6th gen stealth are almost perfected , allot are dong away with vertical surfaces and are utilizing articulating engines that allow them to crawl through the air and shoot to mach in seconds , they can nearly stop on a dime in mid air and then continue on , retractible armaments , you should watch the YT vids on them

The only limitation they have is not killing the meat bag piloting them. Remove that limit, and they will, it's another ball game. I see a fleet of semi autonomous fighters slaved to a human flown 7th gen fighter acting in concert. Next are the nano swarms...