Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor

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icyplanetnhc (Steve) said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1503394768700682242
View: https://twitter.com/ryankakiuchan/status/1503394768700682242?s=20&t=tTiravXYI8V1goMNsMuMfA


A pretty weathered F-22. I’m not sure if I’ve seen this much weathering of the skin in previous F-22 deployments to the Middle East.

More here:
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7091319/379th-aew-airmen-support-oas-ii
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I wonder why the USAF has let the F-22 skin get so weathered like that, I thought that to maintain the stealth capability the F-22 would have to go through regular repainting and maintenance.
 
FighterJock said:
icyplanetnhc (Steve) said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1503394768700682242
View: https://twitter.com/ryankakiuchan/status/1503394768700682242?s=20&t=tTiravXYI8V1goMNsMuMfA


A pretty weathered F-22. I’m not sure if I’ve seen this much weathering of the skin in previous F-22 deployments to the Middle East.

More here:
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7091319/379th-aew-airmen-support-oas-ii
Click to expand...

I wonder why the USAF has let the F-22 skin get so weathered like that, I thought that to maintain the stealth capability the F-22 would have to go through regular repainting and maintenance.
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Thats probably why.

Its on a Deployment where being stealthy does matter.

So why waste the money and time to do the reskin?

And not to mention that this hides the Raptors true stealth far better.

Through with what happening in Europe I imagine that all stealth birds are scheduled for skin maintenance pretty damn soon.
 
I wonder if the surface is very rough and allows sand particles to work their way into the outer surface which makes it very difficult to remove. If it doesn't affect RCS I guess it doesn't matter. That being said I'd be surprised if it doesn't affect it.
 
It's probably not worth the effort to maintain when the only local opposition is the Iranian air force with 3rd gen fighters. I also wouldn't be surprised if the local bases lacked the facilities to re-apply the coatings; I don't think F-22 deployments to the mid east are very typical.
 
BDF said:
I wonder if the surface is very rough and allows sand particles to work their way into the outer surface which makes it very difficult to remove. If it doesn't affect RCS I guess it doesn't matter. That being said I'd be surprised if it doesn't affect it.
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Keep in mind there was an official photo pretty recently of a Mud Hen with a similarly rough appearance. Were there a bunch of sandstorms over there recently and no wash rack? Some of the sand over there is more talcum powder than what most Americans think of as sand so it could cake on... That said, doing my best here not to go full CDR Salamander on the maintenance troops about their jet's appearance.
 
Sahara's sands lifting and airborne transportation has been noticed all over the region (and Europe). That one might just have flown through.

See below how Syria is especially affected:

ifs_aod_an_animation_20220114_20220214_europe.gif



https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-accurately-forecasts-first-saharan-dust-transports-2022
 
FighterJock said:
icyplanetnhc (Steve) said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1503394768700682242
View: https://twitter.com/ryankakiuchan/status/1503394768700682242?s=20&t=tTiravXYI8V1goMNsMuMfA


A pretty weathered F-22. I’m not sure if I’ve seen this much weathering of the skin in previous F-22 deployments to the Middle East.

More here:
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7091319/379th-aew-airmen-support-oas-ii
Click to expand...

I wonder why the USAF has let the F-22 skin get so weathered like that, I thought that to maintain the stealth capability the F-22 would have to go through regular repainting and maintenance.
Click to expand...

RAM and skin treatment is only a small part of RCS reduction measure but is very expensive for the Raptor. Maybe the Air Force doesn’t think that there is any bogey aircraft that could threaten the Raptor in the Middle East or the mission profile doesn’t require VLO.
 
Josh_TN said:
bobbymike said:
Josh_TN said:
bobbymike said:
Another reason why we should have built all 700 F-22s.
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To make sure we could whack F-4s?!?
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The entire rest of the world flies F-4s?
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No, but that's the competition in the Mid East. As for the rest of the world, presumably you mean China, in which case I think the current F-22 force is more than ample enough to fill up every US air base in the West Pac.
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China, Russia, Iran, North Korea etc.

You really believe the current F-22 force is adequate? Okee dokee
 
I think it is when combined with all of the other fighters in inventory, yes.
 
Forest Green said:
Josh_TN said:
I think it is when combined with all of the other fighters in inventory, yes.
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The other jets are far more vulnerable to attrition though, except the F-35s maybe.
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I don't think Iran or Bestest Korea will ever be attriting anything. The VKS is failing to impress so far as well.

There's no shortage of F-35's; I think USAF alone has almost 300 and it hasn't even officially entered full rate production. It only carriers four missiles, but soon there will be enough in inventory there will be one for each of the Su-30/34/35, MiG-31BMs.

I don't think the relatively small size of the F-22 force is a major hang up.
 
Josh_TN said:
Forest Green said:
Josh_TN said:
I think it is when combined with all of the other fighters in inventory, yes.
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The other jets are far more vulnerable to attrition though, except the F-35s maybe.
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I don't think Iran or Bestest Korea will ever be attriting anything. The VKS is failing to impress so far as well.

There's no shortage of F-35's; I think USAF alone has almost 300 and it hasn't even officially entered full rate production. It only carriers four missiles, but soon there will be enough in inventory there will be one for each of the Su-30/34/35, MiG-31BMs.

I don't think the relatively small size of the F-22 force is a major hang up.
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The reason F-22 fleet has such abysmal combat readiness rate (~50%) is largely a symptom of the radical procurement number cuts. Had politicians not cut the already lowered requirement for the service from 381, Raptor fleet would have been in a better shape with a greater impact in the battlespace.
 
zebra159357 said:
The reason F-22 fleet has such abysmal combat readiness rate (~50%) is largely a symptom of the radical procurement number cuts. Had politicians not cut the already lowered requirement for the service from 381, Raptor fleet would have been in a better shape with a greater impact in the battlespace.
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High demand low density is always hard on a fleet, as is a curtailed production. That said, it would be interesting to know how much of the MC rate is accounted for by NMC flyable jets. Back when I still wore a flight suit one of the Raptor maintainers kindly took me around the jet and showed me a number of things that made it NMC but still flyable, mind you not the kind of thing to discuss in public, food for thought though...
 
I’m a big fan of the Raptor but I think there is at the very least circumstantial indications that, somewhat like - but perhaps not quite to the same level as - the B-2, there are factors inherent to the F-22 (how it was built/ what it was built of) that make lower than average readiness rates all but inevitable, almost no matter procurement numbers etc.
And that decisions like curtailing production numbers and focusing more on the F-35 were made with this as part of the context (though I would have still favoured a top-up buy of 40-80 additional aircraft before they ended production of the F-22).
 
mkellytx said:
zebra159357 said:
The reason F-22 fleet has such abysmal combat readiness rate (~50%) is largely a symptom of the radical procurement number cuts. Had politicians not cut the already lowered requirement for the service from 381, Raptor fleet would have been in a better shape with a greater impact in the battlespace.
Click to expand...
High demand low density is always hard on a fleet, as is a curtailed production. That said, it would be interesting to know how much of the MC rate is accounted for by NMC flyable jets. Back when I still wore a flight suit one of the Raptor maintainers kindly took me around the jet and showed me a number of things that made it NMC but still flyable, mind you not the kind of thing to discuss in public, food for thought though...
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OF course those type of deals are...

Well one of those thing that in theory the Jet can still fly and fight but well...

*Gestures at the current shitshow*

That is how Russia does thing and it worked out SO WELL for them...

OFten times when the US Military Says that this makes the gear Non Mission Capable and the broke piece is a similarly minor deal.

It often a Want of a Nail deal in effect.

Like US Army make sure all active duty trucks get 10 miles of travel a Month, that so the Tires dont dry rot and break up once we use them off road. And Dry Rotted Tires is a mission deadline deal. You think it was a joke, but when you have to deal with a tire shredded itself in mud...

You realize there is a method to the madness.
 

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sferrin said:
X-39 said:
Getting some ADAPTIV vibes here:
New-Chrome-F-22.jpg
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I'd still like to know what was going on here:

View attachment 675747
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What's going on is they're making the raptor even stealthier. The radar energy will penetrate and exponentially decay. This has nothing to to with ir as some speculate. They're doing some cool things with nano tech coatings these days
 
Another accident again?

F-22 involved in landing mishap at Eglin Air Force Base​


By
Defense Brief Editorial
March 22, 2022
A US Air Force F-22 Raptor from the 325th Fighter Wing experienced a mishap while landing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on March 22.


The US Air Force said the accident took place at around 10:25 a.m., adding that emergency crews responded immediately on the scene.


The pilot was transported to flight medicine for an evaluation, it was added. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the mishap is underway.


No further details on the accident have been release. It is worth noting that the mishap took place almost exactly a year after the emergency landing of another F-22 from the same wing at Eglin Air Force base on March 15.
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https://defbrief.com/2022/03/22/f-22-involved-in-landing-mishap-at-eglin-air-force-base/
 
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Not another F-22 accident? I do hope that the airframe can be fixed and returned to service, I would hate it if the USAF just put it on the scrap heap
 
Foo Fighter said:
How many did they lose in that storm? Total loss.
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No F-22s were lost from Hurricane Michael itself, but the logistical and personnel issues that it caused has lead to problems with conducting maintenance, which in turn has caused a spike in mishaps with the 325th FW in particular. This is now the second landing gear down incident in just a year...
 
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