The US Air Force cannot use its F-22 Block 20 aircraft in any conflict because it takes too much effort and great cost to prepare the aircraft for combat.
They will never be part of the fighting force. They do not have the latest means of communication. They don’t shoot with the latest weapons. The Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for planning and programming, General Richard Moore, said, “They don’t have the latest electronic warfare capabilities.
The Air Force is calling for a phase-out of 32 F-22 Block 20s in its 2024 budget, a phase-out that Congress blocked last year.
Many believe that it is too early to abandon the fifth generation aircraft, and the Block 20 certainly is, but it is not the Block 30/35. Moore said last Thursday during an event at the Mitchell Institute for Space Studies, taken from one defence.
Congressman Rob Whitman, chairman of the Air and Land Forces Tactical Subcommittee, said the Government Accountability Office is looking into what it would take to bring the F-22 Block 20 into a fighter designation because the aircraft still had a “utility” in it.
“A cell of this new form does not make sense to remove it from the inventory. So I think we have to ask ourselves some very hard questions about that,” Whitman said.
The US Air Force plans to use the money saved, about $485 million per year and $2.5 billion over the next five years, to fund the Next Generation Air Dominance program, Moore said, his new, classified combat aircraft.
“We’re convinced and it’s very clear to us that to get into the early 20s and 30s with a force that can win, we need to get a sixth-generation fighter, and that’s Najad,” Moore said.
If Congress again halts the decommissioning of the Air Force’s fighter jets, Moore said, the service could find itself falling short of the expected $500 million in savings. “Maybe it’s NgadD, maybe munitions, maybe decommissioning the F-22 fleet, but either way there’s going to be a half-billion dollar savings that won’t materialize unless the restriction is accompanied by appropriations.”
Moore said that getting the planes to combat capability would cost about $3.5 billion and take a decade to begin.
In addition, it would require significant engineering work by Lockheed Martin, Moore said. Lockheed, which builds the F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, “doesn’t have a full roster” of engineers, so it would be “reasonable” to assume that the company should pull some engineering talent from the F-35 Block 4 programs to implement this. project, he said.
“It’s an inconsequential trade-off for us: Upgrading aircraft a decade from now at great cost while also affecting the F-35 Block 4,” Moore said.
Lockheed said in a statement it continues to cooperate with the US Air Force in the effort Fundamental upgrade of the F-22And we’re focused on ensuring the Raptor will be ready for as long as the United States needs it.”
Luigi Medici
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