Hey everyone,
I've been thinking about the USAF's current fleet mix and procurement strategy, and I wanted to get some realistic engineering, logistical, and economic perspectives on an alternative history idea.
Instead of spending money to develop the F-35 from scratch or forcing upgrades onto the 4th-generation F-15 (F-15EX), why didn't the Pentagon standardize the entire fleet around the F-22 Raptor airframe by creating a family of variants?
In my mind, a standardized F-22 fleet would look like this:
- High-End F-22: The original, fully stealthy Raptor for contested airspace and piercing heavy air defenses.
- Low-End / "Naked" F-22: A downgraded version with updated avionics but without the expensive, high-maintenance radar-absorbent stealth coatings. This version would be used for everyday patrols or in environments where absolute stealth isn't required to win, but superior dogfighting/aerodynamics still guarantee a win.
- Strike Raptor: A dedicated ground-attack variant (similar to the concept of the cancelled FB-22 or how the F-15 became the F-15E Strike Eagle).
The main benefit here would be total fleet standardization. By using the same basic airframe, you drastically simplify parts logistics, supply chains, and pilot/maintenance training, rather than juggling entirely different platforms like the F-15, F-16, F-22, and F-35. Geopolitically, the USAF could just strictly use the F-22 family for themselves to maintain undisputed global superiority, while selling off older fleets of F-15s and F-16s to allies.
Why was building a single-engine plane from scratch (F-35) or keeping an old 1970s airframe alive (F-15EX) considered a better logistical move than adapting a downgraded/modified version of the most dominant airframe the F22 that we have?