"John Cook" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 22:16:28 -0700, Scott Ferrin
wrote:




Gotta question about the following:

""USAF officials also rejected the forecast that the service will need
to spend $11.7 billion to introduce air-to-ground capabilities in the
F/A-22. Roche says planned upgrades, including a new radar and
small-diameter bomb, are budgeted and would cost less than $3.5
billion. . . ""



So when they say "new radar" are the talking about replacing the
APG-77 with an APG-XX or are they just talking about new software or a
mod of the -77? I'd ask what the hell they need a new radar for as
the F-22 itself is not even in service yet and it's *current* radar
should be considered "new" but seeing how it's been over a decade
since the YF-22 flew it's no wonder.

OK this is from memory... and the sources are not strictly 'official'.

I had heard some rumours that the F-35 and F-22 AESA antennae will be
merged because the MMIC's from the F-35 will be retrofitted to the
F-22's ( they are very expensive and larger.)

The number of MMIC's may also be the same in both aircraft to make a
common 'cheap' AESA antennae (1200 IIRC).

The whole avionics suite of the F-22 is now obsolete, and will cost
another $3.5 Billion to 'upgrade' thats the cut from the $11.7 Billion
thats been bandied about.

Do you have anything to support that contention? There is a bit of a
difference between wanting to improve the computers during the spiral
development process and claiming that the "whole avionics suite is
*obsolete*", isn't there?

Out of curiousity, why do you have this visceral hatred of the F/A-22? Does
it perhaps stem from the fact that you know your own nation can never afford
it, or what?

Brooks


Normally a program this far into production can't be cancelled, but
this program seems to be trying real hard...

The JSF seems (at least so far) to be much more aware of getting
development right first, then moving onto production. (and it doesn't
need the F-22 SMURFS:-))

Cheers



John Cook

Any spelling mistakes/grammatic errors are there purely to annoy. All
opinions are mine, not TAFE's however much they beg me for them.

Email Address :-
Spam trap - please remove (trousers) to email me
Eurofighter Website :- http://www.eurofighter-typhoon.co.uk