Oh, I think it should be phased out and in with the new. After all, they delivered or in the process of delivering all that was initially ordered. This add on was a means by the district representatives to save jobs. I was just playing with you when you postulated why was Obama even addressing it.
Understood. As someone on TV recently suggested, it seems as though Obama might just be spending too much time "courting" the parents of his prom date ( the media ) rather than his date ( Congress ). At some point, he needs to concentrate on the "Girl" in order to get his health care policy ( and other policies ) into law.
My understanding is that the F-22 is a superior "dog-fighter" to the F-35. The F-35 is intended to be a more general purpose fighter for use against both ground and air targets by multiple branches of the military. The F-22 is still the best at shooting down other aircraft. I think I read a while back that in tests against the latest F-15's (or was it F-16's?), which are probably a little better than China's best fighters, the F-22 wins even when outnumbered 12 to 1. Those kind of odds are a powerful deterrent to Chinese aggression against our allies in Asia.
That is exactly right. The F-22 is superior to the F-35 in many aspects. It is just my opinion but I think the F-35 in the long run will not be an overly effective fighter. They are simply trying to make it accomplish too many tasks for the different branches. I have seen these F-22s fly and they are bad ass.
Comparing these two aircraft is like trying to compare "apples & oranges". First off the F-22 has vectoring engines and the F-35 wont so i believe that the F-35 wont stand a chance in a dogfight. In fact, I believe that the F-22 can turn at twice the rate of an F-35. Enough said. The F-22 is designed for air superiority. Intercept, air-to-air, stealth FIGHTER. The F-35 is a multi-role fighter-bomber for close ground support, air-to-surface target destruction. 3 versions: Air Force - Support, stealth fighter-bomber, Navy- STOL fighter-bomber with stealth capability that F-18 just doesn't have, Marines - Vertical take off/ Harrier replacement with supersonic capability (Harrier does not have) for close ground support. As "GTG" posted earlier, they are entirely different aircraft for different roles!
Somewhat interesting article by CNN on the new style of remote controlled air power. I'm not a fan of their fast food news. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/23/wus.warfare.remote.uav/index.html