![]() The former option had a total estimated cost of $8.3 billion. The second was that the production line went dormant for a time and had to be restarted for FMS. The first possibility was that the production of jets for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) would immediately follow the US Air Force’s final orders. The team explored cost considerations on the basis of two possibilities. They derived this outline from the expected configuration of the last Raptors on order for the Air Force. The study team sketched out a notional export F-22. In March 2009, Lockheed Martin had also carried out an independent internal export feasibility review. Similar studies had already happened in 19. It was led by the Special Programs Division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. The work on the study started in December 2009. The USAF has released a heavily redacted copy of the briefing that detailed what the study found. This consideration dates back to 2009 when lawmakers were discussing the prospect of directing the USAF to study the viability of an F-22 variant. Potential benefits to the US military industry and greater interoperability with allied forces might have been strong reasons for Washington to explore the possibility of an export variant of the Raptor. Potential customers of the F-22 included Israel, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, and the especially persistent Japan. Still, the Raptor beats the less-expensive and more flexible general-purpose F-35 in air-to-air combat. However, this aircraft lacks the modern computer systems and the more cost-efficient radar-absorbent materials (RAM) found in the F-35. Not only do these engines give the F-22 the ability to cruise at supersonic speeds without afterburners, but also provide supermaneuverable flight characteristics. The former has much greater speed, courtesy of its twin thrust-vectoring F119 turbofan engines. The Raptor has a smaller radar cross-section compared to more modern planes such as the F-35. The Obey Amendment read, “none of the funds made available in this Act may be used to approve or license the sale of F-22 advanced tactical fighter to any foreign government”. This consisted of a single sentence added to the 1998 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. This was done through the Obey Amendment. Since Washington couldn’t single out Tel Aviv and sour its diplomatic ties, it instituted an export ban that put this aircraft out of the reach of all potential buyers. However, the unstated reason is believed to be that the US was suspicious of Israel transferring the technology associated with the Raptor to Russia or China. The stealth characteristics unique to the plane, in particular, had to be guarded against enemy hands. The government, and specifically Congressman David Obey, worried that the sensitive and secretive technologies that went into this mighty warplane could be found and reverse-engineered by adversaries of the US. The US had determined, way back in 1997, that the F-22 Raptor couldn’t be exported even to allied nations. The aircraft made its combat debut in September 2014 when it carried out coordinated strikes with other fighter jets and bombers in Syria. The USAF received the last Raptor in 2012. Thus, the US Department of Defense decided to end the aircraft’s production. The F-22 RaptorsĪfter the collapse of the USSR, the next generation of Soviet fighters that the Raptor had been intended to dominate in aerial combat didn’t materialize. However, in the following years, the program courted controversies regarding costs and its suitability in a post–Cold War era. The first production F-22 was unveiled on Apsubsequently entered service in 2005. The warplane, intended as a replacement for the F-15, was to pack stealth, integrated avionics, and maneuverability all in one. ![]() In the mid-1990s, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics teamed up to develop an extremely advanced tactical fighter – the F-22. However, it did explore making an export variant of the Raptor once. ![]() Quite long ago, in a move to keep this mighty weapon to themselves, the US had marked the F-22 as “not for sale”. LEAKED: Images Go Viral In The US After Russian-Origin Mi-17 Helicopter Gets Spotted On North California Farmland Its strength is precisely what has prevented it from being sold to military forces outside the US. This double-engine aircraft can outclass almost any adversary on the planet. The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is one of the most dominant air superiority fighter jets in the world.
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