Why aren't we making more F22s

They are the best plane we've ever made, we should have thousands of them.

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Because the j-20 is superior

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Can someone explain winne the pooh to me?

Xi Jinping has a passing resemblance to the character, and he’s apparently very sensitive about it when people compare him to a honey-eating teddy bear. They’ve strait up banned the phrase “Winnie the Pooh” on Chinese social media a couple of times, so people naturally latch onto it.

I'm genuinely dying. Thanks user.

China has never built a combat proven plane.

Impressive.

With this most recent achievement, fate has in a single stroke, marked the decline of the west and spelled a new era of wondrous prosperity and peaceful global dominance for the Chinese dragon, which promises to firmly stand in sharp contrast to the historically bloody ascent of western powers and the cruel subjugation it brought to the humbler nations of the world. With the blessings of Chinese quantum direct-current electricity, quantum aircraft carriers and quantum enhanced railguns will be the instruments with which China affirms its noble stewardship of 21st century world politics and offers the non-western world a different option; an humanist alternative to the depredations of Western leadership and the opportunity for a more equitable and dignified multilateralism.

Bc there is always a better plane in development.

That’s not fair. The JH-7 is an extremely deadly aircraft. For their pilots, that is.

The Navy’s F/A-XX and the Air Force’s 6th gen will be reaching initial operational numbers certainly before the Russians will have any threatening number of 5th gens, and China will still be lagging behind the US for the foreseeable future.

We would've but the Cold War ended.

Because Iraq War

Robert Gates decided to end production during the Obama admin. At the time the Pentagon was far more worried about the ongoing ground conflicts in the Middle East than conventional warfare with a near peer.

As I understand it, we could resume production, but it would be a huge investment. $50B+ Each unit would be ridiculously expensive. With F-35 appearing to be quite capable, the Pentagon would rather invest in other needs - especially given that 6th Gen and air to air drones are on the horizon.

What we could do it upgrade the existing fleet with top of the line avionics (EOTS/DAS) and data links, making it even more capable.

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>6th Gen
That's the big one. The Navy's looking to receive initial units of their F/A-XX by 2030, and there's zero threats that can outclass American air power before that point.

I believe that's the current plan.

It is being upgraded but I doubt it will get EODAS or EOTS. They just started adding JHMCS capability for AIM-9X HOBS queuing.

they can make more if they need to

180 is more than enough, 90 operational F-22s is enough. Not sure where people get the idea that hundreds of (non exportable) airframes need to be made.

>Why aren't we making more F22s
Lockheed is floating a plan with the Japponese to produce an updated F-22 as a 5.5 gen fighter, but really the F-22 doesn't have an opponent and likely never will.

I made one with an old drill press and a grinder.

Im curious why we are selling this to japan when we said no to every other country, including Israel.

The countries that asked were Australia, The UK, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. The F-22 update that Lockheed is proposing for Japan would contain F-35 avionics, making it safe to export.

Because the days of manned air superiority aircraft are going away.

Yeah, but in like 20 years...

Shouldn't you be writing your clickbait, Rogoway?

Cringe. Besides it's going to make flying even cooler. The F35 is already able to pull G's that will kill pilots or some shit, imagine if we got started on remotely controlling these devices, the amount of tricks you could be pulling would be insane.

This is also true, considering Russia isn't planning more than 80 or so Su-57s in the next decade, and the J-20 doesn't seem to be designed for air superiority as much as interception and long-range strike.

We're going to see manned command aircraft like the F-35 datalinked to unmanned wingmen long before manned fighters disappear. Imagine an F-35 with radar off, communicating with small unmanned wingmen who are forward deployed as sensor and missile platforms.

because they're not the best plane we've ever made

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Which is more or less the remaining lifetime for the F-22

>Russia isn't planning more than 80 or so Su-57s
assuming they can afford more than 2 prototypes

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so cute

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That's an ATD-X, not a Raptor.

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The world would be a much better place if the US treated Japan how they treat Isreal.

i want to open her internal bay and slide my missile into her rack

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F22 destroys the F35 in it's intended role. The F35 was never intended to be a long range air superiority fighter. The reason the F22 is dying is because there's nobody to fight.

Because they're expensive to produce and maintain. We don't need more of the damn things.

It’s a multirole, it can fly CAP and is currently better equipped to handle enemy 5th gens than the F-22 is thanks to EOTS.

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