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The U.S. Air Force accepted F-22 tail number 4192 at Lockheed Martin’s
Marietta, Ga., site on March 23, 2012. This F-22 Raptor was then flown
to Joint Base Langley-Eustis (Va.) where it will be based. | | |
Time for the USAF to stat doing some design studies on these puppies...
*stretched fuselage for more fuel and weapons and maybe a WSO.
*fully developed avionics upgraded to F-35 standards.
*big wings, subsonic engines for a ultra high flying, ultra long endurance strato bomber.
and that's just off the top of my head and I'm not a jet guy. These all might be impractical but hey, I'm trying and so should the USAF. I'm convinced that drones, while useful in a COIN, are less relevant in other scenarios.
Time will tell but we should maximize all the systems that we have in hand now.