F-15 Grounded; A glimpse of the future for the F-22 as well? - rec.aviation.military

Message from discussion F-15 Grounded; A glimpse of the future for the F-22 as well?

Kyle Boatright

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More options Nov 6 2007, 6:32 pm

Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military

From: "Kyle Boatright" <kboatrig...@comcast.net>

Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 18:32:04 -0500

Local: Tues, Nov 6 2007 6:32 pm

Subject: Re: F-15 Grounded; A glimpse of the future for the F-22 as well?

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"Hawkeye" <gvo...@new.rr.com> wrote in message

news:1194373827.242521.35590@y42g2000hsy.googlegroups.com...

> Your right about the time from concept to production on the Raptor. I
> believe than many of the promises made about what the manufacturers
> could do was done by promise everything we'll deliver what we can when
> we can. Over promise under deliver. Secure the contract and hope for
> additional money to offset our shortcomings.

To refute this point, I will argue that the military is forever changing its
requirements. Even seemingly minor changes require a tremendous amount of
engineering, tooling, and testing work by the manufacturer. Why? Because
there is no "extra" space in a modern fighter or attack airframe and when
the military changes spec's, usually it causes a domino effect, requiring
numerous systems to be reworked to accommodate a fundamental change to one
system.

Beyond that, funding and schedule are always issues. Congress loves to take
a program that would cost "X" dollars per year over "Y" timeframe and
stretch the program. Then, it costs "X-" dollars per year over "Y+"
timeframe. This inevitably raises costs and extends the length of the
program. Extending the length of the program gives the military more time to
dream up changes in the program.

<<much snippage>>

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