I am about to talk about a subject that we may not have all the facts on. I usually don't do this, but it is such a fascinating subject that I felt that it was worth discussing. The subject is the world's most advanced military planes. The reason that I stated that we may not have all the facts on this, is that there are so many secret projects in this area that there could very well be even more advanced planes out there that we don't know exist, such as the rumored Aurora, which is said to be able to fly into orbit. Be that as it may and since there is no way to confirm this, I will talk about what we know for sure that is out there.

I think that anyone that even casually reads about military aircraft knows that the fastest jet aircraft ever piloted was the SR-71 Blackbird. It holds the world speed record of 2,293 mph and it was also the highest flying aircraft. This plane would have be a worthy competitor for a stealth aircraft, except for the fact that the exhaust on the plane was detectable. I guess a good term for this plane would have been a hybrid between a normal jet and a stealth jet. It was sort of an in between step. The plane was so advanced that it still holds many of the records that it set. For example it set a New York to London record of one hour, 54 minutes and 56 seconds in 1974. This includes time to refuel once from a tanker plane. The plane then set another speed record of 3 hours, 47 minutes and 39 seconds when it flew from London to Los Angeles. Unfortunately the speed was slower on this run due to refueling requirements and the fact that the plane had to slow down over US cities, so it wouldn't create a sonic boom, but it was still fast enough to set a record. I can't help but think that since we had this futuristic plane in the 1960s, what must we have now? It just doesn't seem reasonable that we would have retired such a machine without having something better, does it?

Did you notice that when I talked about the SR-71 Blackbird, I called it the fastest piloted jet plane, not the fastest plane? The reason for this is that there are fasterer ones, like the rocket powered the X-15 and the X-43 unmanned jet that was said to have flown 5,400 mph in one spurt. This X-15 rocket plane holds the record for fastest manned aircraft and that is 4,520 mph. When we talk of speeds of this nature, we have to realize that some way has to be devised to stop the aircraft from melting as it streaks across the sky. The X-15 was carried by a B-52 bomber and launched from altitude. The plane went so high that the pilot was designated as an astronaut. One of the pilots of this plane was Neil Armstrong. The plane made 199 flights and some flights went higher than 50 miles in altitude. X-15As and X-15A-2s were also produced.

As we can see, the above planes were specialized aircraft and not produced to be used in battle, although some of their attributes may have been included in the designs of purely military craft. The Blackbird was sent out on spy missions however. Today the F/A-22 is considered the most advanced US military aircraft and the Su-30 the most advanced Russian aircraft.

Russian Su-30
Photo Source: Pravda.ru

The Russian Su-30, which is also know by NATO as Flanker-C, is a beautiful aircraft. It is an air superiority fighter and entered service in 1996. China has purchased the Su-30MKK a variant of this plane as has India. The plane itself is basically a modernized version of the Su-27. It has a long range Some versions have two seats. When you see a MK after the designation of the plane, it means that this is the commercial version that is for sale. Some models have canards to increase maneuverability. Thrust vectoring is used, so that the exhaust angle can be adjusted, giving even more maneuverability. The plane is so maneuverable that it can make several horizontal turns in a horizontal plane at zero forward speed. The plane can fly almost 5 hours on a tank of fuel. and go about 2,000 miles, but it can be refueled in the air. There is no doubt that this is a formidable aircraft, but technology advances so fast and the plane is almost 11 years old. I think that we will begin to see it falling behind as newer planes are released. The plane is estimated to cost the Russian government about 37 million dollars each In recent war games between the US and India, the Indian airforce kicked our butt when their Su-30s went up against our F-16s.

F-22A or F/A-22
Photo Source: USAF

The F/A-22 is known as the Raptor. I would almost classify it as a wonderful fighter plane, except for the fact that it is far too expensive. The plane's ability is not in question here, but the cost is. We have to go back to that old saw, what is more effective, one super aircraft that actually cost 361 million dollars when you divide the amount of planes into the program's cost or 180 two million dollar planes. The Russian Su-30 is roughly about 1/10 of the cost per plane. One can't help but think that those kinds of numbers matter. Could one of these babies even shoot down 180 WWII aircraft each if we were attacked in huge waves? Anyway, the plane is incredible. The cost of additional aircraft would be a lot less, but still about 120 million dollars each. The plane has thrust vectoring on the pitch angle. The speed is a secret, but has been estimated at about 1.74 times the speed of sound when the plane is empty and unlike the standard after burning engines, this plane is said to be able to cruse at full speed. This top speed estimate might be wrong by a factor of an entire Mach. In other words, the plane might be able to reach 2.5 times the speed of sound, but no one knows for sure. The plane is very maneuverable and can attain a very high angle of attack. It has the ability to cruise very high and has the most advanced radar. Both the Su-30 and the F/A-22 can function as a command craft similar to an AWACS. The plane itself is a stealth aircraft and carries its missiles internally. The plane carries the M61A2 Vulcan 20 cannon but only has about 5 seconds worth of rounds at full burst, but it is a last ditch weapon after all the missiles are gone.

F-35 Lightning II
Photo Source: US Air Force

Another US fighter plane that is in the news is the new F-35 Lightning II, also know as the Joint Strike Fighter. This is the first US fighter plane built by an international coalition. Lockheed is the contractor in charge. The plane's technology is being shared, which leads me to ask the question, why are we making it so easy for others to get the design? Guess what, this program has cost 276 Billion so far and needs another 347 Billion for operations and support. Even with this, the program is already almost 32 Billion over budget, is facing technological challenges and is running late. Sometimes I can't help but feel it might be easier to just take billions of dollars and flush them down the toilet, at least you wouldn't have the continuing aggravation. Yes others are also financing this program, but I bet we have the lion's share of the debt as usual. The plane is sort of a poor man's F/A-22. Get this, the plane was designed to be affordable. Pardon me while I double over laughing. Even the Government Accounting Office is getting concerned and is recommending slowing down the program until the technology catches up. The Pentagon has asked for 2,458 F-35s with the US Air Force getting the largest share, almost 1,800. Our PARTNERS say they will take somewhere between 600-700 aircraft. Supposedly once production starts, we are told that the planes will cost about 75 million for a basic model and 90 million for the more advanced model. I wouldn't bet on that, several years ago they were saying it would cost about 37 million dollars per plane, quite a difference. These things might just land up costing the same price as the F/A-22 and not be as good. Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, the famous airplane designer, proposed a replacement for the A -10 Warthog a few years ago and he said that he could sell it for $2 million a copy. He was laughed at and never taken seriously. He had no lobby folks, so there was no money making the rounds of congress.

When I look at the newest military planes from other countries, I can't help but notice that even though some are quite capable, they seem to lack the stealth and altitude components that we are striving for. The electronics are not quite as sophisticated either, in most cases. I guess the reason that the stealth attribute is not there, is that these fighters are meant mainly for defense of the homeland and therefore don't have as much need for stealth. Airplane costs in western countries are getting ridiculous and because of this, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain have agreed to produce a less expensive version of the European Fighter Aircraft. It is believed that the new plane will cost 30% less. The plan lets each country modify the plane to their needs, thus some models will be more expensive than others. The plane will be called NEFA for New European Fighter Aircraft and will use the same frame and engines. It is believed that the planes that originally cost 81 million dollars each will only cost around 55 - 57 million dollars each. Hey I got even a better idea, buy Su-30s or more F-16s, they are probably just as good as the cheap plane they are thinking of and you can update the electronics and maybe still come out ahead with no design costs. I don't see the point to creating a plane unless it is better than, or at least as good as, those that are being used now. If you are going to strip out everything from the plane that makes it superior to save money, stick with what you have a little longer and take the money you saved and buy something better later. It is not like we are in the middle of the cold war any longer.

Many of the new munitions we are using now are said to be extremely accurate, but the truth is that while they are more accurate, they still leave a lot to be desired. That is why there has been so much collateral damage in Iraq. Our so called smart bombs are not so smart a lot of the times. If a nation concentrated on improving all their missiles and both their offensive and defensive weapons, today's jets might provide a sufficient platform and could stave off aircraft obsolesce for awhile. Just look at the US, if we continue to build these expensive fighters over the years, we might have to settle for a much smaller air force. It is said that the P-51 fighter of World War II cost $51,000. It takes about $21 today to equal a dollar then, so the same plane would have cost us $1,071,000 to build today. The planes didn't have the electronics that we have today however, so let us be generous and multiply that by 10 times. This gives us a price of $10,710,000. So why did the F/A-22 program work out to 361 million dollars per plane? It just seems that the American tax payer is being taken advantage of. Where are the checks and balances on these programs? I would love to know how much money is wasted from mismanagement and overcharges, wouldn't you? Another area that I wonder about is the initial awarding of the contracts. It seems as if Lockheed get most everything when it comes to military contracts. Will airplane purchases eventually bankrupt this country? Maybe not, because the un piloted planes are coming and they should be considerably cheaper. There is one more question that I have to ask, do the planes really cost this much or are we using these contracts to finance other secret projects?