US Air Force To Spend $16 Billion On Upgrades For F-22 Raptor

The US Air Force could spend up to $16 billion over the next several years on further upgrades for the Lockheed Martin F-22.
It could also award some of the business to the manufacturer's competitors.


The dollar value was disclosed in a 26 January acquisition notice calling for bidders to compete for the follow-on Raptor enhancement, development and integration (FREDI) contract.

Lockheed was awarded the original multi-year REDI deal in 2004, but now the USAF is inviting its competitors to bid for the work too.

he last of 187 F-22s will be delivered to the USAF in early 2012, but the service plans to spend about $500 million annually for the next several years on planned upgrades. It is upgrading the F-22's radar and computer, adding more capable missiles and making the stealth aircraft easier to maintain.

At the same time, the USAF also plans to transition the F-22's sustainment programme "to a more organic support concept", the acquisition notice says.
Lockheed has been managing the F-22's maintenance system under a performance-based logistics (PBL) deal, which is designed to generate cost savings over time but locks the government into a long-term support deal.

But the USAF and other government agencies have decided to scale back the use of such PBL contracts. Instead, more maintenance work is being assigned in government depots, while other upgrade and sustainment tasks are split among several contractors.

Chinese J-20 Black Eagle a powerful competitor to American F-22 & Russian T-50

According to the Russian "Airport" website reported January 12, China’s fifth generation fighter J-20 which completed successfully test flight is expected to become a powerful competitor of the U.S. F-22 and Russian T-50 . Some analysts believe that the smooth progress of this test show that China’s military aviation industry has made great breakthroughs in recent years, the U.S. air superiority in the region will be seriously challenged.

In the January 11 test flight carried out, J-20 for about 15 minutes of flight.

Western media have pointed out that recently appeared in Chinese media reports on J-20 might have been the consent of the Chinese military leadership.

Analysts believe that, J-20′s successful flight test showed that the modernization of China in terms of weapons far beyond the achievements of previous estimates of foreign military experts.

 

It is predicted that, J-20 will be served in the 2017-2019 years, and became the F-22 (today the only fifth generation fighter aircraft in service) and the Russian T-50 (it is expected to be put into production in 2015) competitors.

Published photos from the current point of view, J-20 is greater than the size of F-22 and T-50, which means it may have a longer range and greater payload. However, the performance of the aircraft airborne equipment is still a mystery.

Of course, China’s aviation industry in recent years great progress thanks in large part to advanced technology from abroad. For a long time, the engine has been plagued the development of China’s aviation industry one of the major bottlenecks. Some analysts believe that China has not yet developed to fully meet the needs of the new J-20 engine.

However, military experts pointed out that China may use existing engines for the J-20 flight testing. The experts explained that the test flight time may not be too long, the height and speed requirements are also lower than the levels after actual use.

According to the Associated Press news release, China has produced the two J-20 prototype: a Russian-made engine installed, the other one, the installation of Chinese-made engine. It should be stressed that, for the first flight of it is that Chinese-made aircraft engines installed J-20.

As for the J-20′s stealth capabilities, some experts pointed out that the performance of the machine although weaker than the U.S. F-22, but it is also quite good, the front section of the radar reflectivity of about 0.05 square meter.

J-20 test flight in the United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing for the second day. British analysts have pointed out that the move may be to show Beijing its military to prepare to make their research programs become more transparent.

Of course, China also released a new generation of fighter flight out of a signal – even though the United States and its allies have expressed unease, China will continue to promote the country’s military modernization process.

Chinese J-20 Black Eagle US F-22 Sukhoi T-50 Stealth Fighters

Chinese J-20 US_F-22 Sukhoi T-50 Stealth Fighters

Chendu J-20 US F-22 Sukhoi T-50 Pak-Fa Fighter Jets

How Many F-22s Does the Air Force Need?

While we're excited by Defense Secretary Gates's decision to halt production of the F-22 at 187 planes, there is a lot ofdisbelief and confusion surrounding this decision. The confusionstarted as soon as the decision was announced, when Tony Capaccio atBloomberg News asked Gates about it:
Q: The F-22 decision is going to get scrutinized, now that your budget has emerged from the shadows, so to speak. Can you give a sense of whether this was a close call or a no-brainer? And once--and why--why couldn't you have bought more? Why wouldn't--why wouldn't it fill the role that the Joint Strike Fighter will be filling, that you outlined?

GATES: For me, it was not a close call. And the basic conclusion was that, first ofall, we have fulfilled the program. I mean, it's not like we're killingthe F-22. We will have 187 of them. That has--the 183 of that has beenthe program of record, as I recall, since 2005. So we are completingthe F-22 program. And the military advice that I got was that there isno military requirement for numbers of F-22s beyond the 187.
Q: But the Air Force advice. They've been badgering you with all sorts of analysis that they'd need 60 more.
GATES: That was their advice as well.
Q: It was their advice as well...
GATES: Yes.
Q: ... that you didn't need more than 187?
GATES: Yes.
Q: Really? OK.
Air Force magazine has been working on figuring out whether this is really what the Air Force wants, given that Air Force National GuardChief General Craig McKinley said as recently as February 26 that theyneed more than 183--and yes, 187 is technically more than 183, but notmeaningfully so. Gates has been somewhat cagey, but has conceded thatsome services were clearly not happy with his decisions. But Air Forcemagazine found that even Gates's spokesman, Geoff Morrell, is unclearon the hopes of the Air Force versus the dreams of DoD:
Q: The Air Force has been saying for some time that183 is not enough. Gen. Schwartz said in his confirmation hearings that381 was too high but 183 was too few. Adm. Mullen said last fall thathe thought the Air Force's number was 60 more.
A: Mullen said the Air Force should get 60 more?
Q: Mullen said that it was his understanding that the Air Force wanted 'about 60' more F-22s.
A: Well, that was some time ago. And as I say, this process has been underway for some months.
Q: So, to put a fine point on it, the Air Force never recommended buying more than the 187 aircraft?
A: That is correct.
The fact that the Air Force won’t come out and openly disagree withGates may be an indicator that there is real reform happening far ashow business is done at DoD. And if so, Gates' procurement strategy notonly reflects an emphasis on prioritizing current military threats, butalso a method for effectively targeting the usual "guerilla warfare”employed by the services and the Hill to protect pet projects.
But one thing that there's absolutely no confusion about is thatCongress is prepared to fight back on these cuts. Needless to say,we're rooting for the public's best national security interests over Congress's parochial concerns.

F-22 Raptor

The F-22A Raptor is the Air Force's newest fighter aircraft. Its combinationof stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics,coupled with improved supportability, represents an exponential leap inwarfighting capabilities. The F-22A Raptor performs both air-to-air andair-to-ground missions allowing full realization of operationalconcepts vital to the 21st century Air Force. The F-22A Raptor , a critical component of the Global Strike Task Force, is designed to project air dominance, rapidly and at great distances and defeat threats attempting to deny access to our nation's Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-22A Raptor cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft.

General Features and Capabilites
A combinationof sensor capability, integrated avionics, situational awareness, andweapons provides first-kill opportunity against threats. The F-22ARaptor possesses a sophisticated sensor suite allowing the pilot totrack, identify, shoot and kill air-to-air threats before beingdetected. Significant advances in cockpit design and sensor fusionimprove the pilot's situational awareness. In the air-to-airconfiguration the Raptor carries six AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two AIM-9Sidewinders.
The F-22A Raptor has a significant capability to attacksurface targets. In the air-to-ground configuration the aircraft cancarry two 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions internallyand will use on-board avionics for navigation and weapons deliverysupport. In the future air-to-ground capability will be enhanced withthe addition of an upgraded radar and up to eight small diameter bombs.The F-22A Raptor will also carry two AIM-120s and two AIM-9s in theair-to-ground configuration.Advances in low-observable technologies provide significantlyimproved survivability and lethality against air-to-air andsurface-to-air threats. The F-22A brings stealth into the day, enablingit to not only protect itself but other assets.

The F-22A engines produce more thrust than any current fighter engine. The combination of sleek aerodynamic design and increased thrust allows the F-22A to cruise at supersonic airspeeds (greater than 1.5 Mach)without using afterburner -- a characteristic known as supercruise.Supercruise greatly expands the F-22A 's operating envelope in bothspeed and range over current fighters, which must use fuel-consumingafterburner to operate at supersonic speeds.
The sophisticated F-22A Raptor aerodesign, advanced flight controls,thrust vectoring, and high thrust-to-weight ratio provide thecapability to outmaneuver all current and projected aircraft. The F-22Adesign has been extensively tested and refined aerodynamically duringthe development process.
The F-22A Raptor's characteristics provide a synergistic effect ensuring F-22A lethality against all advanced air threats. The combinationof stealth, integrated avionics and supercruise drastically shrinkssurface-to-air missile engagement envelopes and minimizes enemycapabilities to track and engage the F-22A . Thecombination of reduced observability and supercruise accentuates the advantage of surprise in a tactical environment.
The F-22A Raptor will have better reliability and maintainability than any fighter aircraftin history. An F-22A Raptor squadron will require less than half asmuch airlift as an F-15 squadron to deploy. Increased F-22A reliabilityand maintainability pays off in less manpower required to fix theaircraft and the ability to operate more efficiently.
Historical Information
The Advanced Tactical Fighter entered the Demonstration and Validationphase in 1986. The prototype aircraft (YF-22 and YF-23) both completedtheir first flightsin late 1990. Ultimately the YF-22 was selected as best of the two andthe engineering and manufacturing development effort began in 1991 withdevelopment contracts to Lockheed/Boeing (airframe) and Pratt &Whitney (engines). EMD included extensive subsystem and system testingas well as flight testing with nine aircraft at EdwardsAir Force Base, Calif. The first EMD flight was in 1997 and at the completion of its flight test life this aircraft was used for live-fire testing.
The program received approval to enter low rate initial production in 2001. Initial operational and test evaluation by the Air ForceTest and Evaluation Center was successfully completed in 2004. Based onmaturity of design and other factors the program received approval forfull rate production in 2005. Air Education and Training Command and Air Combat Command are the primary Air Forceorganizations flying the F-22A .  The aircraft designation was theF/A-22 for a short time before being renamed F-22A in December 2005.
Pictures and Images
Please click Here to view F-22A Raptor Pictures
F-22 Raptor General Technical Characteristics
Primary Function: Air dominance, multi-role fighter
Builder: Lockheed-Martin, Boeing
Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with afterburners and two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles.
Thrust (each engine): 35,000-pound class.
Length: 62 feet, 1 inch (18.9 meters).
Height: 16 feet, 8 inches (5.1 meters).
Wingspan: 44 feet, 6 inches (13.6 meters).
Speed: Mach 2 class.
Ceiling: Above 50,000 feet (approximately 15 kilometers).
Empty Weight: 40,000-pound class (approximately 18,000 kilograms).
Armament: One M61A2 20-millimeter cannon with 480rounds; side weapon bays can carry two AIM-9 infrared (heat seeking)air-to-air missiles and main weapon bays can carry (air-to-air loadout)six AIM-120 radar-guided air-to-air missiles or (air-to-ground loadout)two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAMs and two AIM-120 radar-guided air-to-airmissiles.
Crew: One.

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