The F-22 Raptor was designed in the early 1980s to ensure long-term American military dominance of the skies of Europe. The F-22 was conceived to win dogfights with advanced Soviet fighters. The Lockheed Martin F-22 requires more than 30 hours of maintenance for every SINGLE hour in the skies. Which, pushes its cost of flying in excess of more than $44,000 an HOUR! A much higher figure compared to the warplane it replaces. The aircraft's radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with known shortcomings such as vulnerability to rain. Meaning the F-22 Raptor at a cost of 365 MILLION dollars a piece cant fly in the rain!
Did you get that....
365 million a piece...44,000 dollars an hour to fly...Can only fly 1.7 hours before needing 30 hours of maintenance. Just for spare parts and maintenance the Pentagon will have to pay an additional 1 BILLION a year to keep the F-22 Raptor Flying. We won't even talk about if someone actually shoots at the plane or, GOD forbid it gets wet...
The F-22 has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan because it's armor is so thin that small arms fire can bring it down.
Because of Lockheed's use of hundreds of subcontractors spread over 44 states the quality control was so poor that workers had to create a "shim line" at the Georgia plant where they retooled badly designed or poorly manufactured components. Each plane wound up with all these hand-fitted parts that caused huge fits in maintenance. They were not interchangeable.
F-22 pilots DO NOT have the ability to communicate with other types of US and NATO warplanes. It is the only plane in the American Fleet that is totally incapable of communicating with other support aircraft.
50 BILLION dollars and counting this is the price of American arrogance...
