Dave
Majumdar's aerospace blog on examiner.com illuminates some stunning omissions
in the US Air Force's upgrade plans for the Lockheed Martin F-22 fleet. My list
of highlights from Dave's recent interview with the F-22 SPO:
- The first 34 F-22s can not be
upgraded with the Increment 3.1 air-to-ground and electronic attack and
Increment 3.2 advanced air-to-air and networking upgrades.
- The next batch of 63 F-22s will
be upgraded to carry eight small diameter bombs, but they can only attack
two targets at a time. These aircraft will never be able to fire high off bore
sight missiles, which are swiftly becoming the standard for aerial combat.
- The final batch of 91 aircraft
are programmed to receive both the air-to-ground and advanced air-to-air
hardware, but these do not include helmet-mounted cuing, also standard kit
for latest-generation dogfighters.
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