From:	Alex van der Kleut <sommers@*****.UMICH.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Eurowars
Date:	Mon, 4 May 1998 09:27:07 -0400

At 06:31 PM 5/1/98 -0500, Stephen Delear wrote:

>>But the big reason they don't do carriers is the paint. All of that cool
>>RAM and paint they use to bounce radar reacts BADLY to sea air. All of the
>>salt content and stuff corrodes after a few weeks. Same thing happened to
>>the Navy's newest F18 (E/F?). The paint all caused it to corrode. But I
>>think that they just fixed it with the newest batch 6 months ago (it was
>>about 2 years ago that I went to McDonnel Douglas and checked out their
>>plant). They will be using the new type on the F22, which isn't quite as
>>stealthy as the F177, but pretty close.
>
>F22? I was under the impression that it was a classified aircraft. Then
>again I could be thinking of a different aircraft.
>
>SteveD

Nope. Kind of hard to keep something clasified when they call 50 brass from
the Pentagon and 100 reporters to announce the plane, along with "America"
playing in the background and fireworks exploding overhead! :) The F-22 was
never a "black" program, just certain parts of it are classified. There are
some good articles in Pop Sci on it.

Basicallt this is the replacement for the F15. Faster, more agile, same
load, and a lot stealthier. But not so completely stealthy that they wanted
to keep it quiet. It's supposed to be a front line fighter.

Sommers