[sukhoi-30mki]

© Lockheed Martin

The last of 187 Lockheed Martin F-22s ordered by the US Air Force took to the skies over Georgia on 14 March

[spetznaz]

The F-22 was "overkill" in an era when most wars would be fought against small groups of guerrillas.

Most wars, not all.

[FreeAtlanta]

Getting rid of this program is going to come back to haunt us. We have big enemies who are not “guerrilla” style actions. China, Russia, a growing number of smaller countries with high tech.

I want our men in the best equipment available. The only reason I can see to get rid of the F-22 is if we have autonomous stealth fighters that will clear the sky.

[CitizenUSA]

Air superiority is an absolute must over any modern battlefield. No ground force can long survive under an enemy air force that controls the sky. Think you can airlift supplies to support beleaguered ground forces? Not without air superiority. Think you can mass power for an attack? Again, not without air superiority. Unless the US seriously thinks all future wars will be against insurgencies, it's really, really foolish to skimp on air superiority assets, like the F-22. That's one aspect of modern combat you absolutely, positively do NOT want to lose!

[Wildbill22]

A valid point is that the F-22 is overkill if terrorists were our only concern. If terrorists had SA-10s, Mig-31s, Su-27s this would be the plane to buy.

It would appear that Obama and many Republicans seem to assume that terrorism is our only military/national security concern.

In fact, we may some day be fighting another large country, especially if we keep reducing nuclear weapons to the point which all out war is thought to be ‘winnable’ and thus ‘thinkable’.

Another false assumption, on the left mostly, is that nuclear war would extinguish all life, even at the new lower levels. In fact, we have fewer weapons on alert than the total number of tests by the US and Soviet Union over the years (<2000 -vs- 20,000+ at the Cold War levels).

Russia and China are both building nation fighting weapons, nuclear and conventional, while we seem to be more concerned with drones and armored Humvees.

IMHO we are not preparing for the worst case scenario.