Raptor gets it's baptism of fire in Syria?

a reply to: Nettlas

Other way round. The Indian air force have said the T-50 is poorly engineered with poor stealth and they are disappointed with it's cr*pness.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Bro, I had ONE day off. Drove 600, sat in 90ish weather for 5 hours and I'm 63 and in questionable health.

In other words, I didn't take a single Pic.

It was a smallish airshow, but beautifully put together. Even 'preferred' parking meant a long hike. 27.50 per, 10 for kids.

The Oregon State Airshow is well worth the effort to attend.

The surprise, at least for me, was a flight of three f-86s in formation accompanied by a composition by James Horner, of Titanic and Avatar fame, that was written specifically for this display. It was SO beautiful that I actually had a pain in my chest!. ( I will try to get the name of that bunch and find a You Tube on it.)

The aerobatic displays were world class with one guy, sponsored by Oracle that rewrites the laws of flight..LOL

The Raptor wasn't parked at this airport. It was kept at the ANG base at the main airport in Portland, else I'd have gotten some shots of her....never touched the ground at Hillsboro...

You missed a good one

Zaph, what images are you talking about? All I've seen is the one vid of the airstrike.

a reply to: Sammamishman

that's what made me think of the global hawk or similar. that can stay around 24 hours in the air before needing refueling

a reply to: nwtrucker

Yeah. I'm am sorry I missed it. Maybe next time and I'll drive you to the front gate.

a reply to: Nettlas

Consider yourself corrected...LOL. Perhaps, PERHAPS, close to the Raptor, but not a match.

The only sure point that I know of that is superior is range..that's it!

a reply to: bigx001

There is another platform that supposedly has a loiter time as large as, if not larger than the global hawk but can do it in contested airspace. It may have been that one or something similar.

Isn't the F22 designed for air-to-air combat? Isn't it sort of hilarious that America's overly expensive, over-engineered air-to-air weapon is being used to drop bombs on dark age extremists.

Here are some stills from the video.

m.aviationweek.com...

They look like they were taken at different times..in one photo there is a truck, in the after photo there is no truck.

Asked why the U.S. chose to use the F-22, Mayville told reporters: “It’s less [about] the platform, than the effects we seek. And then it’s really what platform can give us those effects.”

Interesting. What about the F-22 gives it the "effects they seek" that other platforms can't? I wouldn't really call stealth an 'effect'.

a reply to: intrptr

Wrong. The F-17 which is what became the F-18 was a straight fighter. When it was redesigned and designated the F-18, and sold to the Navy instead it had a strike capability. It was bought to replace the A-6 and A-7, so it had to be a strike aircraft.

a reply to: quatro

Before and after. If you look at the shadows it was no more than an hour or so between the two.

a reply to: Zaphod58


Now that is interesting.
2nd

Isn't the F-22 a major piece of crap? Pilots are afraid or refuse to fly it? They have cost like 3 or 4 times the original cost? They entered service in 2005 yet they just now enter combat? Haven't these planes spent most of there service time grounded?

Are they a lemon?

a reply to: Sammamishman

Some kind of UCAV? STRIKESTAR?

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I don't think it was a UCAV that did the strike. I think it was the F-22's that did that. I do think what ever it was that hung around to watch the events unfold was a UAS like was suggested in the article that Zaph linked to.

a reply to: LDragonFire

They had some oxygen system problems and do have quite high maintenance requirements but the F-22 Raptor is the finest jet fighter ever built. It's flight performance, agility, speed and stealth are unmatched.

a reply to: Sammamishman

....also did anyone notice that the compound that the F-22's hit was hit 5 times? It's a little hard to catch but you can see 5 seperate streaks hitting the roof in THIS video. The last two within a few milliseconds of each other and virtually through the same hole.