From what I understand, we have the F-15, F-16, F-117, F-22 and F-35.
Why do we need all these different models? I assume each specializes in something…what is it?
In: Engineering
The F-16 is a light multi-role fighter (26,000 pound gross weight) with one single engine. It was designed to be cheap, mass produced and be the work horse of the US Air Force.
The F-15 is large air superiority fighter (44,500 pounds gross weight) with two engine. It was designed to be a more expensive very powerful fighter to destroy other aircraft in the air and gain air dominance. The F-15 have a flawless combat record of 104 air combat victories and no losses. Obviously, since it’s a more specialized aircraft and more expensive, there is a lot less of them produced.
There is also the F-15E Strike Eagle. Since the F-15 is big and can carry a lot of ammunition, they made a version of the fighter specialized in air to ground strike. The mission of the F-15E is completely different than the mission of the normal F-15 and so they made a lot of changes to the design for that reason.
All of the fighters above were designed between the 70s and 80s so they are starting to be pretty old and will need to be retired eventually. Of course, some of those fighters were produced after the 80s and new block of modernization happen, but the basic design is still from the 70-80s.
F-22 is a stealth air superiority fighter designed in the later half of the 90s. Stealth is a pretty big advantage so the original plan was to replace the F-15 with the F-22, but for complicated reason including the high cost of the F-22 and the fact that basically nobody else had a stealth fighter it was decided that only a few hundreds of them would be produced to work along side the F-15 in the air superiority role.
F-35 is the modern multi-role stealth fighter designed in the 2000-10s. It’s a big fighter (49,000 pounds gross weight), but it was designed to replace as many combat aircraft as possible. Some design choices and the economy of scale (the F-35 is being produced at the same rate as the F-16 even if it’s more than twice the weight) mean the that the F-35 is pretty cheap for a modern stealth fighter of that size.
The goal is for the F-35 to replace most fighters for the US, that said it will take time to produce that many F-35 so they plan to modernized the F-22 and they started production on a new version of the F-15 to bridge that gap and of course this will be a rather long process.
The F-117 is another story. It’s not a fighter like the other, it was designed F-117 more as a cover since it was a very secret aircraft that was flown in the military way before it was made public. It’s a small tactical stealth bomber, it was the fight stealth combat aircraft ever, but the US progressed a lot in that technology so the F-117 is no longer in service.
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