Posted on 06/16/2009 8:11:41 PM PDT by Nachum
Those planes are not operational. While they are kept in a condition that would not be too much trouble to get them ready to fly - they are not a threat to any enemy as they are...
As far as the original focus of this thread... how much $$$ has been poured into the F-22 and F-35 program? And now we want to flush that down the toilet?
As has already been posted - this is the EXACT scenario that got our tails handed to us in the first year or so of WWII, and it took nearly the whole war to get our war machine up to speed. History today doesn’t teach the reality of just how close we came to losing that war.
Lots of service men and women gave their all so that we could learn that lesson and never find ourselves in that same sad position again.
So now we have 0bama... and the libTARDs in charge. WE will be buying our weapons from the Chi-Coms before it is over...
Yes. this was planned. The Reaper is an amazing weapons delivery platform.
The 174th is a Guard Unit and their planes were set to retire, not be replaced by the the F-35. There are other Guard units that were, or are, slated to receive the F-35. One of those is the Joint Base at McEntire Joint National Guard Base near Columbia, SC.
We don’t have many with AESA radars. There is actually an element of sense to this. With good radars and good electronic countermeasures - say as good as what is currently being installed in Arab & Polish & Chilean F-16s - we could extend their useful lifespan by quite a bit.
It is a sad day when foreign fighters can buy off the shelf upgrades in the US that our fighters don’t have...
This assumes you have airframes with lifespan left on them. If not, then I believe the costs would be prohibitive, since new ones aren’t a whole lot cheaper than the F-35 will be.
Every F-22 bought brought the price down. Same for the F-35. You’re paying for 20 years of avionics engineering and advanced material engineering. That’s not cheap.
Jet Jaguar: “We have these in service now. We need the newer tech in new airframes.”
Air superiority is absolutely vital to military success. Our avionics are probably second to none, but anyone who has ever seen a newer MiG outperform an F-15 knows our fighters need an upgrade.
US fighter aircraft at the beginning of WW2 would have been more competitive with early Axis types if we’d had more powerful engines in them. It wasn’t until the P&W Wasp radial (essentially a big-a— bomber engine) was hung onto Navy & Marine aircraft that the Pacific War stabilized in the air. When the Army Air Corps replace those mediocre Allison engines with the Rolls-Royce Merlin (Packard-Merlin), the P-51 became a world-beater.
The P-40 wasn’t half-bad as a fighter bomber and it was dangerous to tangle with at lower altitudes.
The fighter aircraft to come will have no people in them. They will be highly persistent, will have autonomous air-2-air refueling, etc. They will turn on dimes, put no pilots at risk, be capable of attacking targets behind them, and much more.
AF generals despise such aircraft. But they’re coming.
Quite a few F4 Phantom II’s parked there as well... Quite a few interesting aircraft... pretty cool!
You thought wrong. The F-22 was to be the "high" end of the "high-low" mix. The F-22 would be play the same role as the F-15, while the F-35 would be comparable to the F-16 for USAF a "swing fighter, that could do air to air early and then air to ground later. It was also slated to replace the F/A-18 for the Navy, and AV-8B (Harrier) for the Marines. British were also to use the F-35, and I believe the Spanish and Italians, who also current use variants of the Harrier.
But hey the world is a safe place at this point in time, (Riiight) and we're the Big Dog (in some respects) so we don't need more military stuff. Much more important to save the Turtles, the Snail darters and of course the inner city welfare recipient.
Considering what the Soviets are now producing (and will in the future), I think F22’s and F35 are a more prudent choice.
Some are, most are not. At best they are kept in good enough shape for parts to be taken from them and used to keep the rump of the fleet flying a little longer.
I imagine they've got such a severe case of cranial rectal inversion that they don't have a clue themselves.
“But they’re coming.”
Don’t hold your breath. It is much harder than folks assume.
Only the BUFFs, but some BUFFs where sent by budgets cuts as well. Also 1/3 of the Bones (B-1Bs), which I suspect are being cannibalized for parts, even the original notion was to just not operate them to save on flying hour and manpower costs, but have them otherwise in nearly flight ready status.
And it shows their lack of foresight in assuming the Chinese will not be a threat and cutting the F-22. There would be no lack of aircraft for the Air National Guard if F-22 production was sped up instead of cancelled, with the late-production front-line F-15C's going to the ANG units.
I think they are trying to sabotage us. They, meaning the enemy within.
Do we really need stealth and and other advanced capabilities for domestic defense?
No they aren't. The LibTards will divert the money to African Folk Dancing troupes in the 'hood or some other such such rot.
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