F-22 Raptors' systems crash mid-flight over Pacific
By Jeannie Choe 
posted February 27th 2007 8:27AM
posted February 27th 2007 8:27AM
Lockheed's shiny new F-22 Raptor stealth fighters may have owned a few war games, but crossing the International Date Line left them as helpless as a carrot in a rabbit trap, with multiple system crashes causing an emergency detour en route from Hawaii to Okinawa, Japan. Communication, fuel subsystems, and navigation systems were rendered useless and repeated "reboots" were of no help. Luckily, the fleet had clear skies and refueling tankers to guide them back to Hawaii. If they had separated from the tankers, "they would have turned around and probably could have found the Hawaiian Islands. But if the weather had been bad on approach, there could have been real trouble," states Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. The voyage suffered a two-day delay on account of the system failures -- "a computer glitch in the millions of lines of code, somebody made an error in a couple lines of the code and everything goes." What should have been a showy parade of $125+ million super fighters quickly turned to disaster for Lockheed who would've had a lot of explaining to do, had this happened during combat.[Via Slashdot]
You know that, the money that goes into these things, makes lots of jobs. Most government projects that involve work on the homefront (ie, war production, the cold war, etc). Public works projects, like building bridges in Alaska or building armies, reduce unemployment, increase income levels, raising home ownership and consumption, and ultimately that money all filters back to the top 5% who seem to bitch less about taxes than the middle class. I wonder why... and yet, they get us to stand up for their rights each election cycle.
Frederic Bastiat, the great French economist, wrote of "What is seen, and what is not seen". What is seen is the marvelous technology, the national pride, and the profits (but relatively paltry number of jobs created) in the defense sector. What is not seen is the huge number of jobs not created, the huge number of goods not produced, and the relatively paltry profits that SHOULD have occurred in the private, consumer sector. What you are promoting is a variation of the "broken window fallacy", where a vandal breaking a window is purported to enrich everyone in the community, where in reality the opposite is true, all are made poorer. As long as people persist in such nonsense, we will continue paying the arms makers to build overpriced, billion-dollar airplanes that are of no real use whatever.
Talk about boundless ignorance. It's pretty easy to say from an ivory tower what our troops need and what they don't need. Or what programs are wasteful or which fighters are "useless."
I guess according to you guys the B-1, B-2 and F-117 should have never been built. Or the F-16 or F-15. Should we still fe deploying fighter wings of F-105s and F-4s? Should the Apollo moon program never took place? Should the defense department never invested in a satellite network now known as GPS? Should the Marine Corps still be flying Harriers and Prowlers into the year 2050?
China is deploying an F-22-like next generation fighter to protect their own interests, not just for the sake of keeping up. Since you feel China would never attack us, are they feeling we would attack them?
I'm actually shocked that these topics are even posted here on Engadget since most of what goes on here is shilling for Apple & Sony. What I'm not surprised at is the ignorance and head-in-the-sand mentalities.
Our defense establishment certainly isn't perfect, but it is by far the best the world has ever seen. I see little merit in the impatience of those who would abandon this imperfect world instrument because they dislike our imperfect world.
Reagan said it best: "This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man."
J Ho sez;
"Should the Marine Corps still be flying Harriers and Prowlers into the year 2050?"
...As opposed to the Marine-killing V-22 Osprey? Some choice, dude, I come from a Marine family, you must not like the leathernecks very much if you want to put them in that wastefully expensive deathtrap;
http://www.libertyguys.org/home/detail.asp?ArtID=855
And that's just one example. There are literally thousands of other ways that the military-industrial-congressional complex is destroying us.
Having served as infantry in the RCR I've got an idea what the troops might need.
Decent body armour and rifles that don't jam with minor dust would be a nice start.
Funny how 'joe everyman' troops get stuck with Vietnam era rifles (that never worked right in combat conditions) while the precious sons of the elite get multi billion dollar jets & upgrades every few years.
(what politicians ever served other than as flyboys?)
Maybe China does fear an attack, its a good question that needs more looking into. With new fighter 's like the F-22 and other saber rattling to make them nervous I could see how they might think that.
Instead of yet another figher in the works- supersonic VTOL capable troop transports, to get to the scene on time or get the wounded out fast, would be a useful.
Reagan also spent so wildly he nearly tripled the debt, made decisions based on what his astrologer said and faught hard against manditory seatbelts in cars.
"Well done is better than well said"
Salute to you for your service. Coming from a non-son of an elite former USMC aviator, I hear your concern for better ground weapons. The M-4 was long over due.
I for one am glad that American Attack aircraft had to turn around and go home. Now, if we could just get this feature into their tanks and ships...
Excellent! These planes are made here by skilled Americans. The money is not dumped overseas like so many "feed the poor" programs that feed the dictator.
It was Ted Kennedy that said that the M-1 tank wouldn't work, the Bradly fighting vehicle should be canceled and that the F-18 was unflyable. All three have proven to unbridled successes. Now to the F-22.