RAPTOR’S RUSSIAN BOOGEYMAN

Air Force chief of staff Gen. John Jumper has been work­ing over­time, ever since the F/​A-​​22 “Raptor” stealth fighter pro­gram got slashed by the Pentagon lead­er­ship.
First, he flew one of the jets him­self, at nearly Mach 2, to show off how cool the Raptor really was. Then, he had a team of F/​A-​​22s buzz by the Super Bowl.
Now, accord­ing to Inside Defense, he’s telling “law­mak­ers that the U.S. military’s abil­ity to dom­i­nate the skies may be threat­ened by a Russian air­craft that has not yet been built, and which aero­space ana­lysts believe may never fly.”

Gen. Jumper… warned the design for the Sukhoi 40 is on the boards right now, in a Feb. 8 hear­ing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Defense ana­lysts said Jumper was refer­ring to Russia’s plans for a fifth-​​generation fighter that is to replace the Su-​​27 Flanker and MiG-​​29 Fulcrum. A design for this new fighter air­craft pro­gram, known as the PAK FA, is being crafted with a pro­to­type expected in 2006 and pro­duc­tion begin­ning in 2010, accord­ing to a May 6, 2004, Aviation Week arti­cle.
Aviation indus­try ana­lysts, how­ever, believe the enor­mous costs required to design and build such an air­craft… are beyond the means of the Russian gov­ern­ment.
Use of this fledg­ling Russian air­craft pro­gram to make the case for the F/​A-​​22 raised the eye­brows of some ana­lysts. One, who asked not to be named, called it a piti­ful argument. 

THERE’S MORE: Over on the Defense Tech forum, reader NH mounts a strong, well-​​reasoned defense of the Raptor. Check it out.

February 18th, 2005 | Raptor Watch | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.