Scanian, here is what to think about this:
We depend on air superiority for the success of our armed forces. For our ground troops, our ships at sea, and nearly every single thing you can relate to.
We have been spoiled, because we have had adults in charge most of the time who understood this necessity, and worked towards maintaining it. We have had air superiority in every single engagement of any kind from the end of WWII up until today.
If we do not maintain control of the skies and cede that to our next enemy, we will see American blood shed in ways we have not seen since WWII.
We won’t be able to supply and transport our troops by air. Helicopters are sitting ducks for the enemy if they control the air. We won’t even be able to medevac.
Our supply columns will be destroyed, as will our tank formations. Our ships at sea will suffer the same fate.
In the same way that nearly the entire food chain from livestock down to corn is dependent on water, military power is dependent on air power. Without it, you cannot have and project military power.
It is really that simple, and it is why we must buy more F-22s and F-35’s. But we know that isn’t going to happen, the same way we know that transiting this economic and leadership crisis unscathed isn’t going to happen.
Nice summation—thanks.
Your analysis is good, but it leaves out one point. Obummer isn’t just going to shrink our air support. He’s going to shrink the forces that depend on that support. You don’t need air support if you don’t have an army.
Well, we’ll have an army. But it will be stationed at home, fighting “domestic terrorists”, like Limbaugh, Palin and their insurrectionist supporters.
You don’t need air power to fight that kind of war.
There was an excellent article yesterday that said the F-22 greatly magnifies the F-16’s capabilities. The F-22 provides so large an air superiority advantage that we can depend on older technology to perform as it was originally designed. The argument was that the F-22 effectively breathes new life into the aging fleet of F-16s. I thought this was very persuasive.