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> Could the F-14 have been modernized, upgraded, and improved to still be flying today? Of course it could. But like the bringing the F-22 Raptor back from the

> Could the F-14 have been modernized, upgraded, and improved to still be flying today? Of course it could. But like the bringing the F-22 Raptor back from the dead… sometimes it would cost more to keep a really good older fighter than it would cost to design and build a great new one. Is the F-35 considered "great" when compared to the F-22 Raptor? I was under the impression the Raptor was better in most ways, but also way expensive. Disclaimer: I'm no expert on military aircraft, though I have visited the San Diego Air and Space Museum countless times.

izacus 4y ago
They really do different things. F-22 is meant to fight other planes and has much less flexibility of attacking ground targets and supporting the army. It also can't even land on a full sized carrier, much less a smaller Marine one. F-35 is a jack of all trades, has a better sensor suite for ground attack, can be dispatched somewhere from a deck of even small carriers and is much cheaper to manufacture. It is also worse at fighting other planes (although not bad really). In any kind of real fight you'll probably see both because they're complementing each other, but the 22 is much less flexible and more specialized at its role. So the 22 is more of a successor to F-15 and F-35 is a successor to the F-18 or F-16.
srvmshr 4y ago
The F-22 is an air dominance fighter. It's primary objective is air superiority. F-35 on the other hand is a versatile multirole aircraft which has been adapted to 3 variants for air force, navy and the marines. The F-35 trades a slightly higher radar visibility (vis a vis F22) with a very modular software & hardware architecture & networked combat assistance. Its avionics is much more easily upgradeable & mostly written in a C++ dialect to best of my knowledge. F-22 on the other hand is absolutely the best in class on stealth & maneuverability - but the tech it is built on, will be of 90s always (sadly). Its avionics & controls were coded in Ada on i960MX architecture (CPU clock ~90MHz) which is no longer maintained. Between the two, F-22 is a marvelous bird still, and still outclasses F-35 in air dominance roles. Its capabilities can strike fear to even well-equipped combat adversaries. In an anecdote that I was told by an US airman friend, Pakistan AF had scrambled F-16s during the OBL's Abbotabad raid, but the sortie was pushed to flying the perimeters of the city when a F-22 pair switched on their radar beacons temporarily to ping their presence (& as a obvious warning). Apparently they were overflying at reasonably high altitude having taken off from Qatar or KSA on special close air support mission. Their stealthy presence & perceived capabilities from this incident speaks volumes. Edit: The hardware is Intel i960MX. I mistakenly remembered it as IBM Power architecture. Edit2: Aviation Intel also surmised that F-22s were possibly in the theater http://aviationintel.com/was-the-f-22-used-for-contingency-counter-air-support-during-the-bin-laden-raid/ http://aviationintel.com/was-the-f-22-used-for-contingency-c...
- mst 4y ago
  Having seen quite a lot about the language, I do rather wonder whether Ada would've been a better choice of implementation platform, just with a modern-ish processor underneath it. (I would not describe myself as competent at either Ada -or- C++ though, so take my wondering with a suitable amount of salt)

izacus 4y ago

They really do different things. F-22 is meant to fight other planes and has much less flexibility of attacking ground targets and supporting the army. It also can't even land on a full sized carrier, much less a smaller Marine one. F-35 is a jack of all trades, has a better sensor suite for ground attack, can be dispatched somewhere from a deck of even small carriers and is much cheaper to manufacture. It is also worse at fighting other planes (although not bad really). In any kind of real fight you'll probably see both because they're complementing each other, but the 22 is much less flexible and more specialized at its role. So the 22 is more of a successor to F-15 and F-35 is a successor to the F-18 or F-16.

srvmshr 4y ago

The F-22 is an air dominance fighter. It's primary objective is air superiority. F-35 on the other hand is a versatile multirole aircraft which has been adapted to 3 variants for air force, navy and the marines. The F-35 trades a slightly higher radar visibility (vis a vis F22) with a very modular software & hardware architecture & networked combat assistance. Its avionics is much more easily upgradeable & mostly written in a C++ dialect to best of my knowledge. F-22 on the other hand is absolutely the best in class on stealth & maneuverability - but the tech it is built on, will be of 90s always (sadly). Its avionics & controls were coded in Ada on i960MX architecture (CPU clock ~90MHz) which is no longer maintained. Between the two, F-22 is a marvelous bird still, and still outclasses F-35 in air dominance roles. Its capabilities can strike fear to even well-equipped combat adversaries. In an anecdote that I was told by an US airman friend, Pakistan AF had scrambled F-16s during the OBL's Abbotabad raid, but the sortie was pushed to flying the perimeters of the city when a F-22 pair switched on their radar beacons temporarily to ping their presence (& as a obvious warning). Apparently they were overflying at reasonably high altitude having taken off from Qatar or KSA on special close air support mission. Their stealthy presence & perceived capabilities from this incident speaks volumes. Edit: The hardware is Intel i960MX. I mistakenly remembered it as IBM Power architecture. Edit2: Aviation Intel also surmised that F-22s were possibly in the theater http://aviationintel.com/was-the-f-22-used-for-contingency-counter-air-support-during-the-bin-laden-raid/ http://aviationintel.com/was-the-f-22-used-for-contingency-c...

mst 4y ago
Having seen quite a lot about the language, I do rather wonder whether Ada would've been a better choice of implementation platform, just with a modern-ish processor underneath it. (I would not describe myself as competent at either Ada -or- C++ though, so take my wondering with a suitable amount of salt)