A Quora -
Why is the F15, a 50-year-old design, being continuously improved and
the F22, 'dropped'?

David Tussey
20 yrs as a US Navy fighter pilot. August 2

Why is the F15, a 50-year-old design, being continuously improved and
upgraded, and the F22, which was supposed to replace it, ceased
production after only a couple of hundred or so examples?
I used to be on the F-22 program representing the Secretary of Defense
in the Pentagon. I attended the classified briefings on the program
status and budgets throughout the 80s.

The F-22 was designed and optimized to essentially do one mission -
establish air superiority against the Warsaw Pact in a conventional
conflict in central Europe.

In the late 80’s the Berlin Wall came down, and almost overnight the
Soviet Union collapsed. The threat of war in central Europe diminished
faster than you can say “budget adjustment”. Where the USAF had planned
to build ~1100 of the aircraft, the “need” and the role/mission had
nearly vaporized.

And what appeared were more regional, asymmetrical threats where the US
could immediately establish airspace control, and the F-22 was not well
matched; not much needed.

And we have to admit, history has proven that right. There really has
not been any conflict since 1990 where the F-22 was desperately needed
or could fill a unique role/mission. Nowhere has there been a conflict
where the F-22 would have “saved the day”. We’ve done quite fine without
the Raptor, thank you.

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