Posted on 06/24/2010 11:51:30 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Back to the Title 10 side of the house for a moment; the Air Force Council meets today to consider further cuts in aircraft to meet aggressive savings targets laid out by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. One option on the table: early retirement of all 66 B-1B Lancer bombers (the last delivery of which came back in 1988).
Force structure cuts might also extend to the air arm’s much cherished but currently under-utilized fighter force. The service already plans to early retire 250 fighters this year, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said last month; gone are 112 F-15s, 134 F-162, and 3 A-10s.
Some of the fighter wings, mainly A-10, are being chopped altogether, while others are transitioning from legacy F-15s to upgraded F-15s or to the fifth-generation F-22 and other wings are prepping to receive the F-35 at some uncertain future date.
“By accepting some short-term risk, we can convert our inventory of legacy fighters and F-22 (Raptors) into a smaller, more flexible and lethal bridge to fifth-generation fighters like the F-35 (Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter),” Donley said.
While short-range tactical fighters (and potentially bombers) are being cut, the Air Force is adding more MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones and more analysts to scrutinize the massive amounts of imagery they generate.
(Excerpt) Read more at defensetech.org ...
Ping
Hey, here’s a thought.... why do we need an Air Force or a Navy anyways?? We could save a bundle!!
More money for stimulus!!
lol.
idiots.
Navy ships? Don’t need ‘em.
F-22’s? Don’t need ‘em.
F-35’s? Don’t need ‘em.
C-17 Cargo jets? Don’t need ‘em.
B-1B bomber? Don’t need ‘em.
Nuclear weapons? Don’t need ‘em.
Amphibious Marine landing capability? Don’t need that either.
It must be nice to live in a peaceful world where you don’t need weapons.
Just yesterday there was a post about testing of the Link 16 upgrade for the whole bone pile.
How about cutting all benefits to illegal aliens?
Go to google earth and look at the boneyard at DM, you’ll see a bunch there already.
I think it was about 1/3 of the B-1 fleet that went into storage.
It won't stay like that for long if we keep doing that.
Obviously, 0 never read SunTzu.
“Go to google earth and look at the boneyard at DM, you’ll see a bunch there already.”
Are you referring to the site near southeast Tucson Az.
Maybe he read Sun Tzu, and is playing for the other side.
“Go to google earth and look at the boneyard at DM, you’ll see a bunch there already.”
Are you referring to the site near southeast Tucson Az.
Hope our next President in 2012 pulls a "screw you, Carter" move and re-activates the program...again.
N O V E M B E R
Give the B-1s and F- 117s to Israel.
Good Point
But, we'll show them. We will have 'free' healthcare for everybody and force our 'free' citizens to buy it whether they want it or not, have nationalized most of the car manufacturing and banking and have put an end to offshore drilling by Presidential decree! Ha! Top that! And they call themselves socialists...
I hate threads like this, No, not in the way some might think. ;-)
So much history and emotion is tied to these ‘things’, albeit pieces of machinery , thru the men and women that flew them to the folks on the ground that made sure they were ready to fly on a moment’s notice to the folks that pumped ‘em out the assembly and production lines with loving care.
To many, they are instruments of death and war, but to some who really know what is what, they were weapons of freedom and liberty. .. and too many , an airdrop or sorte when they needed it most.
Sad to see these beasts of war go.. May their future progeny keep us safe.
Granpa! What was the name of that service branch you were in?
What’s an F-162?
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