they've been slated for gradual retirement in the 2030s for a long time. Of course, who knows what will happen between now and then. They might be kept around like the nighthawks and pulled out of retirement to do things
The A-10 Thunderbolt II was supposed to be retired in the late 1980s, then again in the mid 1990s, the again in the mid 2000s, then around the end of 2010s. They were dreamed obsolete back in 1990s and were scheduled for decommissioning. During his first presidency, American president, Donald J. Trump, approved of the A-10 to receive new longer wings with more hard mounting spots. When Donald J. Trump becomes the American president again, in 2025, he will concentrate on making the United States of America energy independent again. The savings from purchasing far less foreign petroleum, and petrol gas, will probably be used for upgrades to proven military technologies, help American infrastructure, return careers to United States of America and even Canada, and reduce the strangle hold China has on the American economy.
I feel like it’s not gonna retire until it gets at least 1 air to air kill (something besides a balloon). It does seem like it’s gonna be that stubborn
Would be a shame to spend billions developing literally the best fighter jet ever created just to have it's only confirmed kill being a spy balloon before retirement. Upgrading it to meet 6th gen standards makes way more sense than doing the whole process over again with the NGAD program imo.
When the past American President, Donald J. Trump, returns to be the American president again, in 2025. The enormous amounts of money President Donald J. Trump will save the United States of America by allowing the nation to use its own petroleum, there will likely be a lot more upgrades to American military hardware, and also reduce the strangle hold the Chinese have on the economy of the United States of America. There will be more changes to United States of America in 2025. I envy my American brothers and sisters. L
I live by an air force base. They're constantly trying to get some stationed here. Hope they get em 1 day cause seeing that thing ripping in the sky would be sick. What an engineering marvel
The mighty warbird will retire one day. When the nations no longer have conflicts, people treat each other like the family they truly are, peace reigns all over the planet, and there is no more war, the mighty warbird will rest. Until then that grande day, that the good await, and the evil will lament, the warrior must fly on.
Any fighter is only as good as the guy in the seat. And the F-22 has some of the best prepared pilots in the world. Glad to see they're not letting these aircraft go to seed
Sometimes, you need a chainsaw and not a precision chisel. Old conventional is the chainsaw. It's just like how I like my car naturally aspirated old school torque converter automatic or manual, and not some turbo, hybrid, or EV with a CVT or electric gearbox.
May it never come to it but it will still be interesting how our F22 raptor does against other so called stealth and next generation air superiority fighters for example the j-20 in real air combat.
When you are surrounded you have the enemy exactly where you want them. Now you can attack in any direction. Great Video. Cancelling the F22 was very short sighted.
'Do not go gentle into that good night...old age should burn and rave at close of day...rage, rage against the dying of the light'...this poem moves me every time...also in connection with the Raptor.
I juat saw F-22s takeoff from Savanah Hilton Head Airport. Im still in awe how the fast the go vertical straight up to like 10-20000 ft. Nothing like seeing them.
Alex, thank you for covering this. As remarkable as the F-22 still is, its lack of IRST is a significant disadvantage. It’s reassuring knowing that upgrades are at least being tested and considered. This channel has been and continues to be informative and trustworthy. As a viewer, I appreciate your citations and accurate information gathering. Always concise, and well narrated.
Hopefully they can put on the new more durable RAM paint. Everybody says that old stuff does not like rain and cost way to much in time and money to keep good.
This is the reason the tax payers get to pay for a new 6th gen fighter. It’s so extremely expensive to use that they need a new fighter! If they could cut the fly hour cost by a huge margin this plane could live on a bit longer. Fantastic plane either way, the new upgrades will serve it well for sure.
That peregrine missile is big change for both F22s & F35s, when your talking about doubling your missile load out. Extended range, drone wingman and upgrades in EW to go along with better missiles, looking harder and harder to cross to Taiwan.
There's a potentially huge problem with the stealth fuel pods: if they're coated with the same top-secret radar absorbing material, and they're being dropped as the plane no longer needs them, won't that give away samples of the RAM coating to any enemy who recovers one of these pods? Is it worth giving away the secret coating just to extend the range of the F-22?
I understand that but I think possibly what they are thinking is that even with the material they would not be able to replicate it nor know the maintaince needed for it. I don't entirely agree with process but at the same time despite being able to legally buy engines and hiring engineers from europe and the US china has still yet to master jet engines....for passenger planes to the level needed to make reliable engines for even those.
The challenge isn't just in knowing the secret formula, it's in being able to actually produce and apply it. That's why it's so expensive. You can maybe do some testing on the dropped pods, but that's not really the same thing. Either way, the benefit of flexibility is paramount. You can always choose NOT to use the pods, but you can never use them until you have them. There are many situations where, yes, it would be preferable to have the range to complete missions than to leave the fleet sitting at home unused because you can't risk a carrier getting close enough (or whatever).
@@Cyrribrae Basically the worst case is that they get a boost in development and they might gather enough material to apply it to a few aircraft but again they would lack maintaince needed to keep the material working
@@kumiq17 My concern is that it is still a huge advantage for such a pod to be captured or recovered. They (presumably China or Russia, but more likely a collaboration of the two) could test it to see what radio or IR frequencies work best to detect it, and any number of other things that I would prefer them not to be able to do. I strongly suspect there would be an effort to recover such a pod it were known that a bunch of these were scattered somewhere. I really hope they have self-destruct mechanisms built in so they don't float if dropped on water. At least when they sink to the bottom of the ocean, recovering them will be far more difficult.
@@Berkana it's really just probably not that big of a deal. These things are fragile to begin with (the coating, not the pod), which is why they have to spend so much maintenance time on them. Again, you can do a little testing, but it's not really the same. (IR testing doesn't make any sense anyway). And it's not like it's a secret what bands work best - there's not some secret radio wave that suddenly negates stealth. And the pods are different shapes on the plane compared to on the ground. The US makes weapons that are ready to be used. China and Russia do what you suggest: make big claims to the press, but never show, rarely test, and try to be scary. That strategy works online, but it's shown serious shortcomings against Ukraine, for example. So no, having the capability is much better than pretending you have the capability or simply having nothing.
Nope. The thing is, nobody outside of China really knows what the J 20's abilities are. Is it built like far too many Chinese constriction projects, or is it actually good? Without real combat data we don't and won't know.
@@tommanseau6277you can still speculate from the clues we've seen. It's not like we need to be 100% sure of anything, since we're in a casual environment.
Pretty much. Definitely still a threat, though. Much better to be prepared for anything, especially because air dominance plays a role in DETERRANCE as well, not just in actual combat.
You should cover the new V-280 Valor and the X-defiant prototypes. iirc the army was looking at the X-Defiant to replace the blackhawk but is now going with the Raider X. It's interesting how we're essentially getting both a (hopefully better) Osprey and a modular blackhawk-like helicopter that can even fulfill attack roles.
I've said it a million times and I'll say it again, one of the biggest mistakes the USAF ever made in the history of it's existence was canceling it's F-22 order.
Yep. I bemoan my disappointment towards then SecDef Gates on every Raptor video. I'm still gonna preach we should restart the production line. My only alternative wish would be to put the F-23 in production. Well, not 'only:' Since both were so fantastic, why not both? What's another $trillion or two on top of a $30trillion deficit?
@@ronjon7942having two jets the serve the same role is ultimate purposeless and only wasteful. You’d have another advance aircraft train mechanics and crew on. Another advanced aircraft to keep all the extra parts for as well. Plus, suddenly an entire set of pilots can’t compare their skills as well with others. If there’s 600 raptors. All 600 pilots can talk and compare how they fly the plane. If it’s 300 22 pilots and 300 23 pilots, now it’s split.
@@captainhellhound7451 I agree with you, but to play advocate for the other argument, we did do that during WWII to great success. For example, the Hellcat and Corsair served almost the same roll but both were very effective. In the USAAF the P-38, P-47, and P-39 all filled very similar rolls yet they were able to serve together and compliment each other. Each one, F-22 and F-23, would have it's strength's and weaknesses and could be used as needed when the situation calls for it. From a practical standpoint though, you're 100% correct.
Don't get it twisted. As sad as it is to say (as I worked on the F-22) the F-22 is in it's twilight years. These upgrades are simply there to keep the F-22 as up to date as possible before NGAD.
I definitely agree. It is nuts to see how many F22 fanboys refuse to accept that it is becoming outdated. Sure it is an amazing aircraft (and a sexy one at that) but it isn't designed nor ready for a fight in the Pacific.
The F-14D was equipped with infra-red spot and track (IRST) and the direct descendant is FLIR Systems Night Vision system for automobiles (a BMW factory option for its flagship models and 5 series cars). The second generation system available for cars since the early 2010s can identify a person, a bicycle/motorcycle or an animal like a dog or a deer, put a box around it and alert the driver. It can even be projected onto a Head-Up Display on cars offering it (like BMW). Its effective range (it is a passive IR system) is several times that of the best LED headlights. It was available when the Raptor was developed. Not putting it on the F-22 was a mistake.
met someone at a gunshow who once flew f-22s. you'd never know it as he was about 350 pounds wearing a sweat stained star wars shirt that almost reached his belly button and the massive glasses. he said the f-22 could actually fly in space and reach orbit- said during the bin laden raid he was called in last minute to do emergency close air support. he made it from his base in arizona to pokistan in 27 minutes, dropped a few bombs, and made it home 30 minutes later. he told his wife he was getting an oil change heh. that guy was awesome. he also did a stint in delta force as a sniper but couldn't talk about it except for taking out bin ladens body double in downtown karachi the day before 9/11.
He lied to you. I've met dozens of these BS artists... okay, first, lets start with his BS about Binladens body double- if it were true, he wouldn't be able to talk about it. #2 - the F22 has air breathing engines - space doesn't have air, so... "do the math", as they say. 😂
The F-22 was a great shot at making the best example of doing what it does in terms of ability. Learning the lessons, and cutting this example short makes the next attempt better. Upgrades such as this gives this example the basic functionality it will need, but those upgrades do not represent an open investment into a specialized example.
I'd be very surprised if NGAD development depended much, if at all, on the status of F22 upgrades. Well, the money perhaps, but I don't think you're going to speedup R&D that much even with more money. Maybe later on, when NGAD is doing well, they can shift money to speed up production and stuff. But I don't think we're quite there yet.
Minor nitpick - the sound in Sandboxx videos is very weird: When Alex begins to speak a passage it always starts out loud and boomy for a second before evening out. It's really irritating on headphones and happens over and over throughout the videos.
I remember actual real photographic images of the YF-23 v YF-22 prospective air craft, several years before the 22 was actually chosen, but nowhere do we see an actual NGAD image....
I remember my father cussing out Obama and Robert Gates when F-22 production was cancelled in 2008. He wasn't wrong. Our political and top-level military leadership aren't exactly known for thinking long-term. And we live in an age when long-term military thinking is the only kind that can be effective. You can't pump out 100 F-22s in a few weeks nor an aircraft carrier in a year or two.
I’ve had the privilege of seeing an F2 2 raptor many times in my life. And I don’t care what any of the haters say. This plane doesn’t just look scary and sleek. It sounds scary. Being a totally blind person. I’ve never actually gotten to touch the aircraft. The closest thing I have done is owned a few models.. i’m hoping that once it is retired, they can finally let me walk up to it, and actually touch the thing. But until that time comes, it will forever rule my Soundsystem and my toybox. I’ve been to several airshows and recorded it. That’s what I mean by my sound system.
From the day one, I've always believed that cutting off the production of F22's, is the single biggest military mistake the US has made in the past 30-40 years. There's a greater than zero percent chance that this mistake will come back to haunt the US at some point in the next 20 years. As good as the F15 is and despite my love for it, it's still a product of it's time that will struggle to compete against newer and more advanced aircraft. As capable as the F35 may be, it will struggle as an air dominance fighter. There is a role which can only currently be fulfilled by the F22 until it's replacement is fielded, and unfortunately... That leaves a considerable gap in time at which point the US will be preciously under equipped. If our potential adversary were literally any other country besides China, it wouldn't be so bad, but as it just so happens, it is. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
