Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Military Planes
To strengthen the military supremacy of the
‘superpowers’, modern and advance fighter aircraft were
developed and modified from time to time. As the US
Senate votes to cut military spending on the
$350 million F-22 fighter, here’s a look at the military
aircraft with the biggest price tags
No 10. F/A-18 Hornet: $94 million
First entering service in the 1980s, the twin-engine
fighter plane was the U.S.’s first strike fighter
— an aircraft capable of attacking both ground
and aerial targets. It has seen action in
Operation Desert Storm and as the aircraft of
the Navy’s Blue Angels Flight Demonstration
Squadron. The F/A-18 is also used by Canada,
Australia, Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain and
Switzerland.
No 9. EA-18G Growler: $102 million
Hot off the presses, the Growler is a lightly armed version
of the F/A-18 fighter that has been updated for electronic
warfare (it is currently being delivered to the Navy).
Growlers are capable of not only finding and disrupting
anti-aircraft radar, but also jamming enemy
communications.
No 8. V-22 Osprey: $118 million
This tilt rotor aircraft, which takes off and lands like a
helicopter but can fly faster and farther like a fixed-wing
plane, was first used in combat in Iraq in 2007. The
Osprey’s production has been bedeviled by design and
construction problems: the craft claimed the lives of at
least 30 Marines and civilians during its development
alone (former Vice President Dick Cheney tried
repeatedly to ground the plane). Still, because of its
range and versatility, the Marine Corps plans to deploy a
squadron of V-22s to Afghanistan by the end of the year.
No 7. F-35 Lightning II: $122 million
Lockheed Martin’s 2001 deal to build this stealth,
supersonic fighter jets was at the time the largest military
contract ever. The F-35s, intended to replace an aging
aircraft arsenal, were developed as part of a Joint Strike
Fighter program between the U.S. and its allies and were
criticized as underpowered and overweight — and
therefore easy targets. Making matters worse, from 2007
to 2008, cyber spies infiltrated the 7.5 million lines of
computer code that powered the Joint Strike Fighter,
raising concerns that enemies could copy the F-35′s
design and exploit its weaknesses. In April 2009,
Lockheed Martin said it did not believe the program had
been compromised.
No 6. E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: $232 million
A major step forward for surveillance and
reconnaissance, the Advanced Hawkeye’s
powerful new radar system will increase the
range of territory an aircraft can monitor by
300%. “It can probably watch the pistachios
pop in Iran,” an analyst for the think tank
Lexington Institute told National Defense in
July. Though development of the plane is on
track and two test versions have been
delivered to the Navy, budget cuts may keep
the planes grounded for at least a year longer
than planned.