The First flight of the F-16 was 49 years ago on January 20, 1974. The F-16 originated in an order placed in 1972 for a lightweight cost-effective air-to-air fighter. Current models are also all-weather capable and effective for ground attack as well. The U.S. Air Force took first delivery in 1978.
Does the F-22 have problems?
The airplane has to be babied and maintenance is a killer. There are around 180 F-22s in the Air Force inventory, but about half are grounded due to maintenance issues at any given time.
The F-35 program currently has 857 deficiencies, but only seven are considered "critical."Its top speed comes in at 1.6 Mach or 1,200 mph as opposed to Mach 2.3 for an SU-35
Lockheed Martin's F-22 is an extremely fast airplane - it can travel at more than Mach 2 with afterburners on the engines - 1535 mph.
Moreover, in February 2022 36 F-35As were grounded simply due to lack of operable engines, a number that has increased year over year since 2020 according to the General Accounting Office which concluded that the extended time it takes to repair the complex F135 means the Pentagon lacks enough spare engines.
Poster Comment:
The DOD is designed to transfer wealth from taxpayers to Wall Street Bankers. Their weapons are not designed to work.The Russian Navy is replacing their Mach 3 cruise missiles with the Mach 9 Zircon. The US Navy is still using a subsonic cruise missile.
$30 trillion has been stolen since the Clinton admin from the DOD by the Bankers.
India is exporting Mach 3 cruise missiles to Third World countries like the Philippines. Iran just bought the F-35 from the Russians.
After the US loses badly in the Ukraine, we will no longer be able to support the US Military Standard which gives the US the right to bomb countries who refuse to sell their oil and buy US Treasury bonds.
The Gold Standard is gone. The US Military Standard will be gone soon.