Posted on 07/14/2009 12:19:29 PM PDT by WhiteCastle
Without congressional intervention, the Air Force's ability to conduct air superiority missions will be increasingly at risk over the next three decades. President Obama's fiscal year (FY) 2010 defense budget request would stop production of the F-22A Raptor at just 187 aircraft and permanently shut down this production line.In reality, the F-22A program would actually end production at 186 fighters and not 187, because the March 2009 crash of an F-22 at Edwards Air Force Base involved a test aircraft not part of the official program of record. President Obama's decision to cap F-22A production at 186 fighters would in actuality yield only about 127 combat-ready aircraft, because some fighters will also be used for training and testing. This reduced number will also ensure that the aircraft's service life expires more quickly than planned.
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
No way the Japanese would bomb us.. (If I had the same thought in the 30’s)
One would hope if we boneyard the old 1950’s birds in AZ, that we’d hold onto the tooling even at the lower supplier tier levels for a substantial period of time in case the SHTF. I can see the Marxist regime now in power doing more dumb stuff however.
Right.
And likewise there’s no need to wear a seat belt, as long as you’re not planning on having an accident.
In the case of national defense, you need to prepare for the worst case scenario and hope for the best. A strong military is the best deterrent. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because they thought we could be easily defeated in the Pacific. They almost succeeded. The only reason they didn't was because our carriers weren't in port at the time of the attack.
Each State Air Guard unit needs at least one squadron (18 fighters per squadron). Several coastal States should have a full wing (3 squadrons): Alaska, California, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Hawaii, the Dakotas and Maine. Some pacifist New England States probably may not want any. So figure at least one thousand fighters to cover threats from north, west, south and east.
It will probably be less than 127 aircraft.
“no war in sight where you would need an air superiority fighter like the raptor.”
The claim that there is no war in sight is total BS when you have China increasing it’s military capability by 50% since 2006, and a resurgent Russia.
Not to mention the on going war with North Korea (it’s only a cease fire and not a formal treaty to end the war BTW) and problematic Iran.
I predict Obama will sell the Technology to China in exchange for something shiny.
What two world wars did the AAC help win?
The Army Air Corps didn’t form until July 1926, was disbanded and re-established as the U.S. Army Air Force in June 1941.
Oh, of the aircraft that the U.S. Army had in WW1 as the “Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force”, they made up roughly 10% of the total allied airpower.
What planet are you from? Haven’t you been paying attention to the North Korean nuclear arms development and long range missile tests...
The F22 has been in development for over 20 years. Cancel it and you won’t have a replacement for the aging F15C for at least 10 more years — perhaps longer. There was a Missouri ANG F15C that literally disintegrated last year in mid-air.
Obama may or may not succeed in killing the handful of F22’s that this budget authorizes. Either way, we have too few aircraft and the unit cost is much higher when amortized over the small fleet buy.
America has not had to go to war without air superiority since the Korean War. Imagine the casualties if US ground troops actually get attacked from the air with anything like the efficiency that the USAF/USN/Marines have dispatched our past opponents?
The US Army Air Corps also sent a lot of pilots out early in the war in substandard aircraft like the Bell P-39 to get shellacked by enemy fighters. They also sent formations of unescorted bombers over the enemy heartland in the mistaken belief that the bomber formations could defend themselves. They continued to do it when it became apparent that their beliefs were mistaken because they had no alternative.
The USAAC (later the USAAF) also did a lot of things right, but I don’t think that you can draw a cause & effect between the post-1947 USAF and Americas overall military performance.
The Japanese also misread their American History in the run-up to Pearl Harbor. They thought that the 'logical' thing for America to do after a successful Japanese Strategic Raid would be for America to "do-a-deal". After all, the Russians did just that after Tsushima Straits. If they had studied the wars of the American Western Frontier they would have noticed how the US came back with a vengance after losing an engagement, and 'hunted' their enemies mercilessly.
Bottom line: I'm not so sure if the lose of 1 or 2 US aircraft carriers at Pearl would have made a significant difference. Now if the Japanese had systematically destroyed the petroleum supplies, docks & repair facilities with followup attacks -- that might have made a difference. The problem was that the longer Nagumo stayed, the greater the risk to his Carrier Strike Group which he was ordered to preserve.
But wasn’t this number what the original contract was for? Not to actually agree with Obama but I didn’t think he really canceled anything. He just didn’t order more than the original contract. Am I all mixed up??
The best description of defense costs I have ever read goes like this:
"You can pay now, in gold, or you can pay later, in blood."
Wars have a way of coming up suddenly and the more prepared we are the better off we are. I would rather overpay for defense than underpay, and take the money away from ACORN and welfare drones.
Plus, what does Obama think is going to happen to all of the aerospace engineers he puts out of work? These guys aren't going to just forget how to make airplanes, missiles and advanced munitions. Some of them are going to go to work for currently-friendly nations with real military programs. So, over time we end up buying weapons from our allies instead of selling weapons. The seller is always in the catbird seat in those transactions.
The old USAAF had people like Curtis Lemay. The badass general that lead bombing raids himself and designed the destruction of Japan thru firebombing.
... and on LeMay's staff were people like Robert S. McNamara who royally screwed up another war that you may have heard of... mostly by preventing the USAF from doing its job.
Just sayin'...
Robert Strange McNamara and LBJ, what a bunch of jackalopes. McNamare was a over educated whiz kid who had the heart of Formica. And LBJ made the term” My Fellow Americans” into an insult.
The very same guy... A demostration of the “Peter Principle” if I ever heard of one!
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