zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Beyond Cars
/
The F-22 Raptor Will Fly For Another 43 Years
The F-22 Raptor Will Fly For Another 43 Years-May 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:14:07

The United States Air Force will keep the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor in service until 2060, extending the life of the aircraft for another 43 years.

All of this is made possible thanks to a series of forthcoming upgrades that will maintain its already robust structure, known more specifically as its aircraft structural integrity program, or ASIP. To pay for it all, $624.5 million dollars in Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) money and $398.5 million in procurements for hardware and software upgrades are included in the FY18 budget.

As reports, the F-22 was built with an 8,000-hour airframe life, but the jet can be flown safely without modifications for up to 12,000 hours and can even max out at 15,000 hours. Tom McIntyre, a program analyst for F-22 requirements at Air Combat Command, said 10 design missions were built into the structure during the late 80s and early 90s:

“That’s what during EMD [engineering, manufacturing, development] we did the full scale testing on against those missions. We came to find out we have not been flying the Raptor nearly as hard as those design missions nor as what we found out during the structural testing, so actually the airframe itself—without any service life extension program—is good out to approximately 2060.”

Corrosion has not been a factor for the F-22 either, unlike the F/A-18 Hornets that the U.S. Navy uses.

In June of 2015, Navy Rear Adm. Michael Manazir said the Hornet fleet required far more maintenance than expected, according to . Part of the problem, Manazir said, was an assumption the Navy made decades ago that the Hornet, “as a composite aircraft,” wouldn’t need the same level of corrosion-prevention work as “older, mostly metal planes, such as the F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder and the A-7 Corsair II.”

Metal tends to have problems with saltwater, you see.

As for the Raptor, most of its issues dealt with galvanic corrosion tied to the aircraft’s stealth material, though none of it was on any critical airframe structures of the Raptor, McIntyre told The National Interest. To eliminate the corrosion problem, the Air Force is replacing a specific kind of conductive stealth coating.

So we know the Raptor has staying power, but the real challenge is if the upgrades it will undergo stand against China and Russia, both countries that are working to counter the Raptor. So far, the Raptor against Russia’s Su-30SM Flanker-H and Su-35S Flanker-E, for example.

Additionally, as The National Interest notes, the F-22 may partner with the sixth-generation Penetrating Counter Air (PCA), similar to how fourth and fifth-generation aircraft are partnered up. It would take the place of the F-15C Eagle.

“When the PCA comes online, it will be designed to operate and be interoperable with fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35,” McIntyre said.

“There will come a time whether it is 2030, 2040 or 2050 when the F-22 will be kind of like a fourth-generation aircraft today.”

But don’t expect new F-22 Raptors to roll of the assembly line. It is too expensive.

A released this month found that it would cost $50 billion to procure 194 F-22s, estimated to cost between $206 million to $216 million per jet. To put this in context, the F-35 cost per aircraft is .

But, at least for folks who are fans of F-22 Raptor will have 43 more years to enjoy the aircraft. In the meantime, check out this mock dogfight between one F-22 against five F-15s:

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Beyond Cars
Crystal Chunks Are Bursting Through The Road In China
Crystal Chunks Are Bursting Through The Road In China
A video of what looks like quartz breaking through the surface of a is making the rounds on . I don’t get over there much, being suspicious of the Chinese over concerns of it spying on its users, as the reports. OK, fine. Actually, I just don’t get the humor...
May 11, 2025
Aircraft Touch Tips During Blizzard At Japanese Airport
Aircraft Touch Tips During Blizzard At Japanese Airport
As at , its port side wing the starboard vertical stabilizer of bound for Hong Kong. This comes at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, and . “Our aircraft, which was stationary at the time with no customers nor crew onboard, was struck by a Korean Air A330 which was taxiing past,”...
May 11, 2025
2023 Zero DSR/X: The Bike Of The Future, But Not Our Future
2023 Zero DSR/X: The Bike Of The Future, But Not Our Future
The world, in 2023, is cyberpunk. We’ve got the , the , and the that keeps the and the . But in cyberpunk media, people are always riding . Why are we stuck with the same bikes we’ve always had? , it seems, wants to address this grievous wrong....
May 11, 2025
String Of Boeing Failures Continues With 737-800 Flight Turning Back With Cracked Cockpit Windshield
String Of Boeing Failures Continues With 737-800 Flight Turning Back With Cracked Cockpit Windshield
In the wake of recent major , including , , and the debacle that was , it isn’t a good time for further failures by the company. that would , an unrelated 737-800 with a cracked windshield, became international news this weekend. The flight took off from Sapporo-New Chitose...
May 11, 2025
Deadliest Train In America Kills 3 People In 2 Separate Collisions At The Same Crossing
Deadliest Train In America Kills 3 People In 2 Separate Collisions At The Same Crossing
operate between Orlando and Miami and hold the unwelcome distinction of being both the first intra-city high speed rail in the U.S. and the , by far. After three people died at a single grade crossing in two separate incidents last week it seems the feds are finally perking...
May 11, 2025
Marshmallow Treats Ended Up On The Royal Air Force's No-Fly List
Marshmallow Treats Ended Up On The Royal Air Force's No-Fly List
Over in the United Kingdom, there’s a certain dessert known as a “teacake” — or, as a British friend kindly informed me, it’s more accurately known as a “Tunnock” in Scotland. Basically, the food in question for this particular story are actually a cookie base topped with marshmallow, coated...
May 11, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved