F-22 Raptor Burned a Hole in the Nation's Wallet

I am not here to criticize the potential use of the F22 Raptor fighting system. I think it is a great aircraft; unrivaled (allegedly) by any advanced nation today. It has spawned copy cats in China and countries such as Russia have responded with their own aircraft. For all of the gadgetry, munitions, stealth, and advanced radar systems, the F22 has one major problem.

It cost the United States $65 billion dollars. $65,000,000,000. The B2 program was even more expensive- but they have actually been used. Not one US F-22 Raptor has been used in active service. In fact, military strategists refused outright to use it. The official reason is "we don't need this technology in a conventional war". Also, a "high threat theatre" was cited, meaning that they were designed for a nuclear conflict of some sort, or are for wars with advanced countries.

I am practical here when I say this- that the F-22 Raptor is a parasite. Don't get me wrong- they are amazing. But when the Raptors are sitting on the tarmac wasting away, maintenance is required on them. I'm not here to talk about some of the technical problems with the Raptor either- no platform is perfect, and each will have its unique set of problems.

In college, I wrote a paper about the F117A-Nighthawk and the Congressional decision to axe the program due to "high maintenance costs" of the platform. Maintenance was ludicrous and parts were not easy to come by (because they were not modular). Poor planning from the design stage cost the nation more money than it needed to spend. Make no mistake- the Nighthawk platform had a HUGE impact in the military world. Unleashed in Desert Storm (1991), they began dropping bombs on high priority targets without being detected by radar. AAA fired everywhere.

The Raptor seems to be going the way the Nighthawk did. Congress seems to think that it acts like a "deterrent". Abstractly, this may be somewhat on the mark. Practically however- it is a waste of time. What's worse is that 158 of them were built at a large cost to US Taxpayers. Had I been the Secretary of Defense, I may have stopped at 50-75. But the fact that modular parts and ease of maintenance wasn't taken into account disturbs me. If they couldn't help the maintenance, than just the modularity and availability of parts. If you are going to use this weapons system, put up or shutup.