Post #67,243
12/6/02 11:08:49 PM
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Raptor program in trouble
[link|http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20021206_1406.html|ABC News] Large cost overruns in the USAF Raptor program may force cut backs in the number of planes bought. Cost overruns are pegged at $7 million to $1 billion, but it's unclear from the article just what the time frame for those overruns are. One particularly hilarious line. One of the biggest problems with the Raptor has been getting the software for its sophisticated cockpit controls to work properly. The Air Force's goal is for that software to require restarting only once every ten hours, on average. Jay
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Post #67,251
12/6/02 11:40:10 PM
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WTF...
Are they running on "NT" Technology? Or are they looking for redundant-redundancy?
Hell, some of the most sophisticated parts in the Raptor controls are on the order of 50K Lines of code. They'd never cut it in the Space program, where restarts are only when they turn it on from power-up... which "could" be a minimum of 90 days...
[link|mailto:curley95@attbi.com|greg] - Grand-Master Artist in IT
[link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry/|REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!]
Your friendly Geheime Staatspolizei reminds:
Use your computer, we'll sample your DNA and imprint your eyes.
SELECT * FROM politicians WHERE iq > 40 OR WHERE ego < 1048575;
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Post #67,274
12/7/02 7:49:19 AM
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Ouch
I wouldn't want to be flying that plane when the software required restarting.
Particularly not while doing any interesting maneuvers. Which are more than likely to exercise untested code-paths. Imagine the bug reports you could get...
Bug submitter: It appears that whenever we get into low-altitude dog-fights, the plane goes into a power dive.
Programmer: That isn't very helpful. Dogfights involve a lot of complex maneuvers. I need to know exactly what the pilot was doing. Can you get a more detailed description?
Bug submitter: Yo, jackass. The pilot. Power-dove. At low altitude. At supersonic speed.
etc
Cheers,
Ben
"Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it\ufffds probably a fly."
- [link|http://www.nationalinterest.org/issues/58/Mead.html|Walter Mead]
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Post #67,276
12/7/02 8:26:55 AM
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Raptor I believe is an unmanned aircraft
lately used to fire hellfire missiles at bad guys.
thanx,
bill
will work for cash and other incentives [link|http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boxley/resume/Resume.html|skill set]
Opera was the television of the nineteenth century:loud, vulgar and garish with plots that could only be called infantile. "Pendergast"
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Post #67,282
12/7/02 8:36:05 AM
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Nope. F-22 Raptor. The next Uberfighter.
[link|http://www.af.mil/lib/airpower/airpower_specs.shtml|F-22].
You're thinking of the [link|http://www.af.mil/lib/airpower/airpower_specs.shtml|Predator] perhaps?
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #67,289
12/7/02 11:29:46 AM
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oops, wrong aircraft
will work for cash and other incentives [link|http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boxley/resume/Resume.html|skill set]
Opera was the television of the nineteenth century:loud, vulgar and garish with plots that could only be called infantile. "Pendergast"
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Post #67,383
12/8/02 11:18:33 AM
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The Ultimate Anti-Terrorist Weapon
The beautiful thing about this thing is that it's a real monster to the enemy - like a large insect without a soul and with a single mission - put a Hellfire missle in your Immediate Vicinity. The terrorists will have to hide so deep that they will be ineffective.
This is the real war on these bastards. You don't need massed armies for this - you need intelligence.
The (former McDonnell-Douglas) people who make the Predator also make the [link|http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0601/jdam.html|JDAM], a strap-on intelligence boost for conventional bombs. You can run, but you can't hide!
-drl
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Post #67,283
12/7/02 8:56:28 AM
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Re: Raptor program in trouble
Your intrepid local military critic has pointed out here often that the F-22 is an answer without a question - in that the three main flight problems - long range interception, tactical and escort, and ground attack, are all handled beautifully by the F-15(F-14), F-16(F-18), and A-10(Harrier) respectively for the AF(Navy/Marines).
The only thing the F-22 has going for it is thrust vectoring, a system likely to prove problematic for maintenance in the field.
-drl
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Post #67,298
12/7/02 1:38:19 PM
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Rumsfeld is a cunning bastard
Rumsfeld is a cunning bastard. Of all the people Bush has put in office, Rumsfeld is the only one I respect. I don't much like him, but I respect him. I think the whole F-22 as a multipurpose fighter/tactical/bomber thing is a cunning attempt to kill the program.
The program is too big and has been running too long to kill unless it is an obvious failure. There are billions of dollars on the line, and a lot of companies and Congressmen that want that money.
But no plane can be good at everything, and equiping it to do everything runs the price up and lowers performance. The end result is that Rumsfield can turn the project into a massive failure so he can cancel the entire thing. An F-22 already costs on the order of 3 times as much as an F-15 and that cost will only go up as the plane is equiped for bomber roles.
If he is really cunning he will use this as an excuse to put the F-22 back into development. The F-22 has the potential to be a great interceptor, but it obviously still needs a lot of work. Make it a 'concession' move to Lockheed-Martin, which can't probably can't afford to the have the program killed entirly. Then they can take another decade finishing the F-22 and roll it out around 2010.
Jay
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Post #67,382
12/8/02 11:08:21 AM
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Re: Rumsfeld is a cunning bastard
It's better to cut losses outright and make it public. Thrust vectoring is cool, but why not retrofit a Hornet for that?
The stealth aspects of the F-22 are a complete waste of time and money. The best weapons are the ones that are all too obvious, in performance and numbers. Sometimes we seem like Hollywood Germans with our obsession with secret weapons.
-drl
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