US F-22 fighter jet crashes, 200 million USD goes up in smoke?
Currently, the US Air Force's fleet of 5th generation F-22A stealth fighters is maintained at 187 aircraft, but that is expected to change.
On military websites and forums, images of a US Air Force F-22A Raptor stealth fighter belonging to a fighter squadron stationed at Fallon base that crashed during training have just appeared.
According to the story, while the fighter jet was taking off, the landing gear suddenly had an accident and broke, while the plane had not yet reached the speed needed to get off the ground.
The result was that the F-22 fighter crashed onto the runway, sliding for 1.5 km before stopping.
Fortunately, the pilot was not injured and the plane is currently undergoing repairs.
It is currently unclear what level of damage this fighter jet is assessed at, however it should be noted that the unit price of the stealth fighter "raptor" is being announced at over 220 million USD.
The damage would be extremely severe if this F-22 could not be repaired, but fortunately for the Americans, according to initial assessments, the work was not too complicated, and the internal electronic components as well as the outer shell were not too badly damaged.
However, the repair work will cost a significant amount of money and the time this aircraft is grounded could last up to a year, leaving a position missing in the US's already relatively thin F-22 fleet.
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| The F-22 fighter was brought back for repair, and it was found that it was not too badly damaged. |
It should be noted that in the past, in 2012, another F-22 also encountered a similar accident, but during landing, the incident was also related to the landing gear, causing the plane to land on its belly.
The rubbing on the runway caused the plane to have to be repaired for an incredibly long time... 6 years, the cost was up to half the cost of producing a new one.
Based on the above precedent, it is possible that the recent accident did not cause the United States to lose the F-22, but they still had to spend a large amount of money to overhaul it, which was something they could not do otherwise because the production line of this fighter line is still closed, and it is unknown whether it will be restored or not.