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Defense: Dealing from a position of increasing strength against increasing U.S. weakness, China has rebuffed an overture to hold strategic nuclear talks. Why should they? As we disarm unilaterally, time is on their side. America doesn't have that big a stick anymore, and the Chinese know it. China and the United States are seemingly moving in different directions both economically and militarily. So when Defense Secretary Robert Gates went to Beijing on Monday speaking softly about the need for strategic talks, the Chinese told him in essence, "Thanks for coming." The world's oldest civilization is willing to wait patiently for...

The U.S. Air Force’s senior officer has acknowledged concern over the Lockheed Martin F-35 program, in particular slow software development that may push the Joint Strike Fighter’s operational debut into 2016. “There are some issues with respect to timing on software development,” the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, told a group of defense writers this week in Washington. “We don’t have a complete understanding yet of whether that will affect the new, predicted [initial operating capability] of April 2016. I’m still concerned about the schedule – a little less on technical matters, [but] software appears to be...

The takeover of the U.S. House by Republicans could prompt a revival of the fight for additional funding for the Marietta-built F-22 stealth fighter, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey said Friday. U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Republican from Marietta. AJC file “This isn’t just for the sake of home-cooking, but also for the sake of the country,” Gingrey said in a telephone interview. But Gingrey conceded that concerns over spending and the federal deficit could make the funding battle a difficult one. The planes have a price tag of $120 million each. “We would have to look at it with a...

Federal Spending: The secretary of defense announces that due to economic conditions, the military must be slashed by $100 billion. Since when did defending the United States become an optional budget item? As Chinese warships tour the Mediterranean and Iran adds four submarines to its navy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced this week the closing of the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) in Norfolk, Va., the first step toward finding $100 billion in savings over the next five years. The command was just formed in 1999 to improve the ability of the various services to work together and find efficiencies. It...

Known as the "Red Tail Angels" by bomber crews of the 15th Air Force, who they flew in support of over the skies of Europe, the famed 301st Fighter Squadron will relocate from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. to Holloman where its reserve members will form a classic association with active duty military members from the 49th Fighter Wing. The squadron will fly the F-22 Raptor alongside the 7th and 8th Fighter Squadrons, while also performing their monthly reserve weekend training missions. Ironically, all of the squadrons -- 301st, 7th and 8th -- can attribute their early roots back to...

Arms Deal: President Obama signs away U.S. nuclear security and gives the Russians a veto over whether we can defend ourselves. Our nuclear umbrella is in tatters as another piece of paper proclaims peace in our time. Completing a process of disarmament and appeasement that manifested itself in the dismantling and defunding of U.S. military power that began with his inauguration, President Obama signed a new strategic arms limitation treaty with a grinning and very happy Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday in the Czech capital. How fitting this document was signed in Prague, which isn't far from Munich where...

The debate over the F-22 Raptor has been carried out at the customary level of simplemindedness we've become used to with Congress handling military questions. Since the early 60s, the favored method of killing a military program has been to come up with an argument easily expressed in a sound bite and stick with it. This time, the sound bite was, "Why do we need two fighter planes, anyway?" The answer is even simpler: we need two fighters because need two fighters. The historical record clearly reveals this: every air campaign carried out with two distinct and particularly formulated fighter...

When a nation accustomed to decades of projecting power loses control of large tracts of airspace, that is a strategic disaster. If that nation loses control of the airspace over its homeland, that is a strategic catastrophe. America has enjoyed air superiority over airspace in locations of its choice for about 40 years. The F-22A ‘Air Dominance’ Raptor and the clear intent to establish the next level, air dominance, was an aircraft thirty years ahead of its time. Its concept design is now twenty years old, and the aircraft should be in full stride and in its prime. The Sukhoi...

Defense: The administration decision to scrap a proven aircraft in favor of a supposedly cheaper, more flexible replacement is proving to be an expensive mistake. We may wind up defenseless and broke. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that was supposed to be America's frontline fighter for the foreseeable future is in big trouble. Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the general in charge of the program this week amid concerns of spiraling costs and program delays. Gates also announced he is withholding $614 million in fees from the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin. Daniel J. Crowley, one of Lockheed Martin's project managers,...

According to a recent Air Force Times article, the F-22 Raptor has the lowest pilot-retention rate of any U.S. fighter or attack aircraft measured, at a rather abysmal 33%. Compare this to 81% for F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and 68% for F-15 Eagle pilots respectively, and, gentlemen, we’ve got a problem. Think about that for a second. If those numbers are correct (and we’re not sure about them, yet), the F-15E, a much older and less-technologically-advanced aircraft, enjoys almost 2.5 times the pilot retention rate of the vaunted F-22. The article didn’t give an explanation, just the brutal facts. However,...

The Air Force is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on two fighter jets that probably will never be used to support troops on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Congress has decided to cap production of the F-22, removing funding for the fifth-generation fighter from the 2010 military budget. And the F-35 — also known as the Joint Strike Fighter — won’t be ready for prime time before 2013, according to the latest estimates. Critics of the new fighters say they are too expensive and not needed in today's warfare, while proponents argue that the current aircraft are not...

Fifteen F-22 Raptors are scheduled to deploy to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in January 2010 for approximately three months. The fighters and associated personnel will deploy from the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. The deployment supports U.S. Pacific Command's theater security packages in the Western Pacific and follows the recent departure from the theater of two deployed squadrons of F-22s that also were supporting U.S. PACOM's TSP. The fighters and personnel deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, and Kadena Air Base, Japan, completed their redeployment in October 2009. The F-22 is a transformational combat aircraft that can avoid...

The 8th Fighter Squadron received their first of 20 F-22 Raptors on the afternoon of December 21. The arrival of 8th FS flagship, a Langley AFB Raptor -- which came from maintenance in Palmdale, Calif. -- starts the next chapter of the "Black Sheep's" storied history that started in 1941 when the squadron was assigned to the 49th Pursuit Group, where during World War II, their pilots amassed 207 aerial victories. "Air dominance," said Lt. Col. Craig "Bluto" Baker, 8th FS commander, relating how the F-22 fits into Holloman's history. "The F-22 builds on what previous generations of air superiority...

This column is the third in this series on the best fighter ever put in service by any country at any time in history, the F-22 Raptor. To briefly summarize the first two columns: The F-22 Raptor is the most superior fighter in the world. Its key feature is its stealth quality, which allows it to run undetected by enemy radar. Its primary purpose is to gain control of the sky above a battlefield and hold it. It can opportunistically attack ground targets, although that mission is the main role of the currently planned multi-service, multi-purpose stealth F-35 Lightning II...

EDWARDS AFB - More than 100,000 people streamed into Edwards Air Force Base Saturday to join in a celebration of aviation and flight test history during Flight Test Nation 2009, the base's open house and air show. "WHAT A SIGHT - The Warbirds demonstration included pyrotechnics Saturday at Edwards Air Force Base Flight Test Nation 2009 Air Show and Open House. Participating planes included the B-52, B-17, P-51 and P-38." MOLLY HAUXWELL/Valley Press

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama sent his Administration’s 2010 budget priorities to the Congress. What it revealed was shocking, even if it should not have been surprising, with trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, even before healthcare reform spending is counted. The only significant cuts were in future defense spending, even as American forces are fully engaged in fighting two wars and the world appears as dangerous as it ever was. The White House’s budget submission called for ending production of the Air Force F-22 Raptor, a replacement for the 40-year old F-15 Eagle air-superiority fighter....

After the Senate vote, General Peter Pawling, who moved to the staff of U.S. Pacific Command earlier this year after serving as commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing, told Aviation Week's David Fulghum that he was "still planning on getting those airplanes." "There is nothing out there that can fly against it," Pawling said. "If we had a major conflict [against someone with advanced air defenses], I can't imagine going in there with anything but an F-22." Indeed, that same day Fulghum quoted another Air Force official, this one identified only as a "senior intelligence officer." "The...

Russia and China, two potential U.S. adversaries in a future war, are committed to big increases in defense spending and global military adventures in the coming years, just as President Obama is forcing the Pentagon to scale back. The imbalance has defense experts worried that re-emergent Russia and China will be able to defeat U.S. forces in an air, sea and ground conflict because they will field superior fighters, ships and tanks in the next decades. This week, China announced its most ambitious military exercise to date. The People's Liberation Army is sending 50,000 troops to far reaches of the...

A year ago, USAF had a fully funded modernization program. That program has unraveled. The Air Force is in the throes of what could prove to be one of the greatest upheavals in its turbulent 62-year history. The words “danger” and “difficulty” have become only too appropriate in describing the situation of USAF’s critical combat formations. Today is a time when aged fighters fall out of the sky and no replacement bomber is in sight. The nation bets its basic security on a force that is older—by far—than at any time since World War II. Some see the current turmoil...

We wouldn't want to save or create jobs of those who build fighters would we...Video of Obama calling it "waste"...