I am not even going to get involved in this pissing match about Russia, which I consider to be one of our allies and friends. I would however, like to dispute some claims about the F-22.
It is NOT, as one person asserted, outclassed by recent Russian fighters. It is far beyond any fighter that has ever been produced to date. The Eurofighter comes close in many respects but lacks the stealthiness. The Su-35 and other Flanker variants have somewhat superior manouverability in certain flight regimes, but lack the avionics, stealth, and speed over distance possessed by the Raptor.
And we DO need the F-22. Just because we have not had a serious challenge in the air in recent times does not mean that we never will. China is perilously close to developing a fighter fleet that can challenge our current fighters. They are building Flankers under license, and have 2 new homegrown fighters that they are working on (including one that is based on the F-16). If they build these in the quantities that they usually acquire military hardware in, they will have one of the strongest air forces in the world.
We have to look way down the road in a situation like this. Right now the F-15 is king of the world as far as fighters go, but 20 years from now, they will be very very old. The airframes will be worn out, and they will have trouble tangling with many newer generation fighters. They will be hard put to survive against the latest SAM missiles as well, since they are extremely unstealthy. The Eagle fleet is already 20 years old (except for the Strike Eagles of course) and fighters wear out quicker than do bombers and transports due to the high wear and tear caused by the mission. We cant just decide in 10 years that, hey we need a new fighter right now! It takes many years for an advanced program like that to develop. The days of a frontline fighter being designed in less than a year ended in the '50s. CAD type technologies have sped up design processes, but a fighter like the F-22 is so complex, and the testing that it must undergo is so extensive, that even in an all-out push to develop a fighter as fast as possible, I cannot imagine one being completed in less than 3 or 4 years. And that would be an all out, cost no object, emergency drive to develop a fighter. Far better to spread the cost out over a longer time, and have enough time to work the bugs out, and come up with a great fighter that will serve for many years to come. The F-22 is slated to enter service around 2006, give or take a year or two, barring further interference from Congress.
Having the best air superiority fighter is the key to winning because once you control the sky, you can do pretty much anything you want. If you cant keep the enemy air force down, however, your bombers and strikers arent going to do you much good, and your ground troops are going to suffer. Since somewhere around mid WW2, no country has won a conventional war where it lacked air superiority. There have been cases where asymetric capabilities such as guerrilla warfare have been used to offset a countries dominance in the air, but these have been far fewer than most people realize.
It is our pride in the USAF that no US ground soldier has died to an enemy aircraft since early in the Korean war. The F-22 will ensure that this record continues indefinitely.
