F-22 Deemed Too Expensive to Fix for 6 Years Finally Ready to Fly

[rangerrebew]

F-22 Deemed Too Expensive to Fix for 6 Years Finally Ready to Fly

Military.com 31 Aug 2018 By Oriana Pawlyk

One of the U.S. Air Force's oldest F-22 Raptors is back out of the hangar and ready to fly again after six years idle in a hangar, according to the service.

The fifth-generation stealth jet, tail number 91-4006, had been shelved in 2012 for "needed costly upgrades," and with sequestration just around the corner, Air Force officials made the decision "to put it into storage," the service said in a recent release.

https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/08/31/f-22-deemed-too-expensive-fix-6-years-finally-ready-fly.html

[SZonian]

FTA:  "The decision to hold off maintenance for years underscores the unwieldy cost of U.S. 5th-generation fighters, even as the military may be considering a successor to the F-22 and F-35."

Bullshit.  Modernization is built into every program, this was/is considered a "YF" aircraft, a Flight Test airframe.

In Flight Test, aircraft are configured in specific ways to accomplish specific types of testing.  This aircraft had been configured in such a way and there had been no plans/budget to update the aircraft during its testing phase.

When you're in the middle of production while flight testing and parts/budget are tight, the program is going to let a certain number of YF aircraft fall behind, on purpose.

This is nothing new, the F35s have a couple of aircraft in the same situation and a certain number of YF-117s were as well.