By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com March 15, 2010 Human Events is reporting that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) fighter/attack aircraft’s per-unit cost has skyrocketed to $112 million, and The New York Times is reporting that the F-35 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) fighter/attack aircraft has ballooned in cost from 60-90 percent in real …
Read More »Tag Archives: f-22
Raptor Beware: Russia Test-Flies PAK FA Sukhoi T-50 5th-Generation Supercruise-Capable Low-Observable/Stealth Fighter Aircraft. Look out F-22.
By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com February 1, 2010 Updated on 2/20/10 On March 29 of last year (2009), DefenseReview published a story stating that we disagreed with the cancellation of the F-22 Raptor program, and calling for at least 1,000 Raptors, total, to be built and fielded. This is because we knew that advanced Russian and Chinese …
Read More »Lasing Skulls in the Digital Age: Tactical Laser Weapons Finally Maturing for Future Warfare Applications: Meet the Boeing ATL (Advanced Tactical Laser) Airborne Laser Weapon
By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com October 15, 2009 There’s a scene at the beginning of the 1985 film Real Genius showing a fictional “Crossbow Project” demonstration video of some unlucky bastard (perhaps a third-world dictator or politician?) getting instantly vaporized by a space-based laser weapon fired from a satellite. The video is being shown to a bunch …
Read More »F-22 Raptor Program Cancellation: Will we learn from it?
By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 29, 2009 While Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ decision to halt production of the costly Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor low-observable/stealth fighter aircraft is perhaps not the best long-term strategic decision he could have made, it’s certainly understandable. Given the U.S. government’s–and thus DoD’s–current money crunch vs. the program’s high cost and lack …
Read More »Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM) ‘Kill Weapon’ Flummoxes U.S. Navy
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com April 6, 2009 I’ve been writing about the vulnerability of U.S. Navy surface ships, particularly large expensive aircraft carriers, against other countries’ anti-ship cruise missiles and torpedoes for awhile, now. Specifically, I’ve focused on the latest crop of supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and supercavitating torpedoes, even though some argue that long-range wake-homing …
Read More »U.S. Air Force Having Serious Trouble Keeping F-22 Raptor Pilots
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com October 28, 2008 According to a recent Air Force Times article, the F-22 Raptor has the lowest pilot-retention rate of any U.S. fighter or attack aircraft measured, at a rather abysmal 33%. Compare this to 81% for F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and 68% for F-15 Eagle pilots respectively, and, gentlemen, we’ve got …
Read More »Deployable Weapons-Grade Solid-State Tactical Lasers by the end of 2008?
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com September 7, 2008 Laser warfare may be closer than we think. Danger Room and Gizmodo both report that Northrop Grumman is promising the U.S. military that it will have working, deployable weapons-grade solid-state, electric lasers (tactical lasers) ready to go by the end of 2008. Solid-state electric lasers have been making progress …
Read More »F-22 Raptor and Other Big-Budget Military Programs Reinvigorated
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com August 20, 2008 The recent dust-up in Georgia between Russian and Geogian forces, i.e. the Russian invasion of Georgia, has reinvigorated expensive, high-tech conventional-warfare/Cold-War-type weapons like the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor low-observable/stealth fighter aircraft a.k.a. F/A-22 Raptor air-to-air (air-superiority fighter)/ground attack aircraft. The F-22, in particular has been receiving a lot of …
Read More »Eurofighter Typhoon: Can Thrust-Vectoring and Low-Observability be Added?
by David Crane defrev at gmail.com May 30, 2008 DefenseReview has been hearing some pretty great things about the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat fighter aircraft’s performance, from its excellent flight characteristics to its pilot-friendly cockpit, to its helmet-mounted display and targeting system. What’s interesting is that it can perform so well acrobatically, even without thrust vectoring. Advanced electronic fly-by-wire flight …
Read More »Tech Update: AAE Stealth III Cloaking Tech for Vehicles, Warfighters, and Helos
by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefenseReview has obtained two of the latest promotional/informational documents on the AAE Stealth Technology System (STS) cloaking technology (a.k.a. adaptive camouflage, electro-optical camouflage, active camouflage, and chameleonic camouflage), so we thought we’d share them with our readers. These documents discuss what Advanced American Enterprise (AAE) calls "Stealth III". The relevant links to the Stealth III documents …
Read More »