A Late Rant

[chris_gerrib]

Every once in a while I find myself mentally re-enacting arguments from the past. The last couple of days, I found myself reflecting on Obama's decision to not buy any more F-22 fighters. When the decision was announced several months ago, the Usual Suspects were upset that Obama was betraying America or some such. This got me thinking, and a rant eventually (late, I know - sue me) crystallized. Since it's my blog, you get to read it.

The most plausible near-term threat to the US is a war with China. Now, this site tells me the Chinese have "about 1,300" fighters. That's a lot. However, the US has:

409 F-18s (US Navy)
238 F-18s (US Marine Corps)
685 F-15s (US Air Force)
145 F-22s (as of August 2009)

For a total of 1,477 first-line air superiority fighters, as per wikipedia. If we went to war with China tomorrow, we could trade them fighters one-for-one and still win.

In the mean time, we are actually at war with Iraqi insurgents, the Taliban and Al-Queda. These enemies field a combined total of zero combat aircraft. In fact, these forces are totally at the mercy of an aircraft that would be hard-pressed to defend itself against a Cessna flown by a guy armed with a .45 semi-auto.

Tell me again why we need more F-22s?

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Tell me again why we need more F-22s?

Because procurement policy for a leading-edge fighter which will probably still be in service decades from now needs to take into account more than simply the needs of the absolute present. The F-15 first flew in 1972 and the F-18 in 1979: what will we do for air superiority 10-20 years from now, when the F-15 is obsolete and the F-18 obsolescent? At that time, our F-22's will be filling the role that the F-18's are now, as the now second-line fighter.

It is much more expensive to start and stop and start a production line than it is to keep it running. 145 F-22's will probably not be enough for the long run, and so we will either have to restart the production line in 2013 or so, when we have a real President again, or start the line on an entirely new fighter, which won't be airworthy until the late 2010's. (The F-35 is more of a fighter-bomber than an air superiority fighter: it can't fill the same role.)

Obama has done something which looks thrifty, but is liable to cost us more, in both gold and blood, before the story's over.