The U.S. Air Force budgeted $553 million (in FY2024 documents) for these stealthy tanks and associated pylons, planning to procure 326 tanks and 286 pylons (providing roughly two full sets per aircraft for the ~140–150 operational F-22s).
This works out to an average procurement cost of roughly $1.7 million per tank (total tank/pylon budget divided by ~326 tanks; actual per-unit figures may vary due to shared pylon costs, development amortization, and economies of scale).
As I said before a very expensive solution, even if stealth drop tank some of stealth degradation will happen compared to clean f22.
We don't know, that's just your assumption, you have not provided any sources to back up your claim.
On the other hand its known phenomenon that attenuation, scattering, blooming due to material properties/ medium/environmental buildup/optical imperfections, can and does happen.
Even if you replace the old IR sensor with newer better one, it will give better performance compared to older one that got replaced but nothing says it can match the performance of another IR sensor that is just as good but also does'nt have to deal with interference caused by external housing.
Just like f35 which it turns on its radar to search for potential hostiles? Even LPI doesn't fully compensate for that.
Well unlike su57 which is lot more agile and can supercruise, along with not lacking any protective sensors whether it be RWR,MAWS,DAS etc and can take evasive actions, F35 on the other hand does have all those sensors too but sucks kinematically, and kinematics DO still matter.
No body knows at the START when to scan with IR, or when to turn on radar, you accept the risk and still do it if mission require.
On the other hand you can get info, cues from other systems too, getting the rough info to take action.
