How much does one of those things cost? Didn't someone wreck one a few years ago?
The initial cost for the first ones with design and testing etc was $339 million each. Additional one cost $138 million each.
Yeah. They have crashed several. It's not unusual with a new generation, but there have been more than usual.
The real problem with crashes is we have no reserves.
It's had problems, but it's still, by far, the best jet ever produced. Thrust vectoring, super sonic with no after thrusters, radar that's invisible to the enemy, super stealthy, lowest drag of any jet ever made, can go into a complete vertical standstill and not stall.
A single one would be Russia's worst nightmare.
The force on those wings has got to be insane.
It's only flaw is dogfights. But, it's likely to shoot anything down before it gets to that stage.
I still wanted the YF-23 BlackWidow instead of the raptor. That thing's top speed is still classified, but it was faster than the F-22.
The force on those wings has got to be insane.
339 million dollars and they crashed it?
And they crashed more of them?
Lol. Yep. Several. Training mostly.
It's a new generation. Very hard to learn.
One dude simply retracted his wheels before he was up to speed.