Sunday, April 13, 2014
Navy Matters: F-22 Lessons
Navy Matters: F-22 Lessons: As we attempt to understand the JSF (F-35) program and assess the F-35’s role in Navy and Marine operations, it is instructive to look at i...
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translation: An all stealth fleet is beyond reach of even the wealthiest nations and even maintaining a small group of them is extremely expensive.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Paralus. I have been saying that for a while now, manned VLO should have been used only to replace the F117 in a silver bullet role with support/eventual replacement with a VLO UCAV.
ReplyDeleteUSAF should have used USN lesson with Hornet to Super Hornet move with some LO treatments to make a moderate LO FIGHTER not a BOMBER to replace F16s. Just look at what just about every other country out there is doing when it comes to LO, no one has gone the route chosen by US DOD.
You have to be dreaming or on LMT payroll to honestly believe that F35 is going to be cheap and easy to maintain...
In his response to TD the house-burning-down vs. spotting a small fire early was a good example. Many of the F-35 goals were sound. Build an affordable joint, coalition strike aircraft that would do most of the dirty work after the F-22 took down the big threats. Years later and now much water under the bridge. F-35 maintenance could have been stellar, they did some good things on material and if it wasn't for some of the faulty ideas like the IPP, flight controls and thermal issues, there would be less panel opening and less breaking of the stealth bubble for maintenance actions (1-2pc on the F-35.... 5pc on the F-22). The lift-fan choice helps none of this either. Answer, we need to get all that talent working on the wrong aircraft and get it building the right aircraft. As an aside, the GAO misses a lot of things about F-22 maintenance. Some shocking. Some very good. For dry environments they have been able to get 100pc MC-rates on "Squadron" (really a package) deployments (guess where?) for up to about 30 days. That is about as far as they can push it without going to the L.O. barn. Wet environments (um...you know... Pacific pivot?) Not so good. There are also some fatigue issues which we will be lucky to see F-22s out to 2030.
ReplyDeleteEric I had once worked for a company once contracted to build some components related to structural issues on the F-22, so steps are being done to correct that. Such unforeseen structural issues are still relatively common unfortunately, the Super Hornet had a similar problem in somewhat recent history.
DeleteHi Nuke. Take a look at F-22 SPO / USAF sustainment briefs from 2011, 2012.... Example, dog-year credits for ISO/Phase hours in dry environments. USAF worried about deeper airframe issues (high-g) even wondering about limiting practice "warm-up" high-g turns before a practice fight. And some other ugly issues.
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