They already approved the budget for the Raptor upgrades, and they can’t retire it until NGAD begins proliferation. Same reason F-15Cs are still a thing
Well, i heard something on the contrary…
The US is nearly on the verge of retiring the raptor and will focus its stealth fleet on the 35 and the new stealth bomber (i forgot the name).
Upon its retirement, the UK is going to purchase the 22 and refurbish it (far fetched as it seems they wont be getting any more than 40 airframes of which there are 32 max which are flight worthy)
Lmao, where did you read that? Eurasian times? Russia today?
no a UK source
Spoiler
Are those public or spicy docs? Or did you make them up? They have the restricted on them but I feel like that would be harder to acquire lol. They don’t look too official.
Those are from the 90s/early 2000s, while britain was looking for options outside of the ever-delayed Eurofighter program, and before the F-22 was banned from export by congress if i recall correctly. It has nothing to do with any current plans.
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They are official, but they are decades old
Yeah I was looking at the fact it mentions the soviets. Interesting plan tho. Thanks for sharing
well now theyre public lol but no. theyre no longer restricted. (national archives)
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fair
A wonderful aircraft, but far too soon. Give it a year or 3, and gaijin will also need to add other equivalent aircraft to other nations when it does come.
CooL
we need F117 first tho
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Good find, this game is totally going to get shut down when gaijin models RCS wrong and somebody leaks docs to radar absorbing paint lol
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Mate this is from the 90s before the F22 even entered service this doesn’t tell you anything
F22 was considered if the EFT ever fell through or just wasn’t good enough
I think this is a great time to finally see this. Now that we have the Mig 29SMT (2016) and the SU27SM (2003) we should certainly see the F-22A (2005). Its 10 years older than the Mig 29SMT so the time is now!
No need to worry about modeling RCS, the only country that opposes it in game doesn’t have RADAR that can detect it. So just don’t model it and it will be realistic.
Older doesn’t mean equivalent. The F-22 was ahead of its time by quite the margin, and set a new standard as well. Adding a plane without counterparts like this would be like adding Aim-120s to only one plane (before update seek and destroy) in one tree before adding any other equivalents.
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You mean like… adding thrust vectoring IR missiles to only one nation? Or like adding 6x Fox 3s to an aircraft that could only carry 2?
We have passed that nonsense, and the gatekeeping is getting old. Seeing 2016 and 2003 aircraft dumped in negates that argument now.
If you’re referring to the R-73, it was added with a counterpart, the Aim-9M. In exchange for superior short range capability, it succeeds in longer ranges and different aspects that the R-73 does. Adding both was a great idea in terms of balance.
As for the 2x-6x ARH missiles thing, I’m not fully sure what you’re talking about, if you could elaborate that would be nice.
No, it absolutely does not. These aircraft have nerfed armaments to allow them to be balanced. The MiG-29SMTs FM is also absolute garbage, and was picked for a balancing reason. It’s still missing later R-77 variants (specifically the second stage booster R-77 with massive range) and R-74s.
There’s a reason gaining held off on adding SOME ARH missiles and platforms for some nations first, but rather waited to give them to all nations at once.
Take this from me, and American Air TT main (and Israeli air sometimes on the side too), it’s already hella powerful as it is. If you want this added now, they wouldn’t even hesitate for a singular second to add the Felon along with it. You think they’re just going to hand over the most capable combat aircraft in world to the nation with the best top tier Air winrate and aircraft? Open your mind man.
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