Air Force grounds F-22s

Who knows what the future will bring. Warfare is constantly evolving. Today's friends can become tomorrow's enemy.

I would prefer to be prepared to fight the enemy of tomorrow, not the enemy of yesterday. It seems that we are always preparing for the war of yesteryear.

Has everyone forgotten the China or North Korean threat?

Martin,

Your comments are dead on the money!

The time for front line advanced fighters has passed since the enemy has no air force and "air superiority" is now gained if we simply fly over the Taliban and Al Qaida in a WW1 biplane carrying a Shotgun. Considering the fact that the air defense systems in place for both of these entities is a guy named Abdul screaming "RUN!" into a bull horn made from a camel skull, I submit that the best plane for the job (ground attack) is the venerable and proven A-10 Warthog. And at 12 million a plane, we can buy a dozen A-10s for the price of one unproven, costly and ineffective F-22. The Warthog is not as sexy as the Raptor and not as "cool" at NASCAR races and other recruiting venues, but much more useful.

Oxygen starvation is NOT a laughing matter. It sneaks up on you and you are gone before knowing it,
This is clearly demonstrated in the altitude chamber during USAF pilot/crew training.

Hmmm I seem to recall F-15's having similiar problems with their O2 generator. Interesting to know that the problem hasn't been fix!

Link to above quote: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2011/05/f-22-stand-down-linked-to-site.html

Looks like this might be what led to the death of the F-22 pilot in Alaska: "F-22 manufacturer Lockheed Martin confirms the company has sent five engineers to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, to help investigate the source of the fleet-wide F-22 safety stand-down."

This is not a laughing matter. This plane has brought back to America air superiority that no other fighter now or soon will be able to deliver.

OMG, AF has no aircraft for airshows and football game flyovers. They're all on static display.

Time to turn them in for drones. F22's @ 150 million a piece ought to save government about $60 billion. What's nice about drones, they don't need oxygen and don't burn as much fuel and can fly all day.