Editor’s Note: While it’s highly unlikely such a thing would come to pass, we cannot help but salivate at the notion of more Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptors entering service with the United States Air Force. Because of the drastically reduced number of F-22s than originally intended and the reduced F-35 buy in FY 2017, the Air Force is re-thinking its investment strategy in an effort to maintain readiness for a near-peer-level conflict in the future. What exactly will that entail. No one knows for sure, but there are several theories.
Congress and American defense officials are realizing that over the last few decades they committed the classic sin of militaries over the centuries. America trained and equipped to fight the last war, a special operations, low intensity conflict, incorrectly defining future threats to the United States. The realization is causing the U.S. government to rethink its procurement of the latest-generation combat aircraft, specifically the F-35 and F-22.
The U.S. Air Force had delayed the buy of 5 F-35s in the 2017 fiscal year with a consequential savings of $700 million, reducing the buy from 48 to 43. In consultations with Congress, it seems this money and aircraft planned buy will be restored.
“Banzai” drops the very first laser-guided bomb from a combat-coded F-35A Lightning II over the Utah Test and Training Range. (Photo courtesy of 388 FW/PA)
“We cannot afford to assume that the enemy will resemble the threats of recent wars, nor can we assume that future fights won’t require greater numbers of advanced aircraft,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, (Arkansas Republican) chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland. “The current investment strategy is too risky and will prove to only be riskier in the near future.”
In addition the reduced buy of F-22s is also being revisited in a realization that just less than two hundred air superiority aircraft is not sufficient to effectively defend the United States in the current threat environment. “The eventual retirement of 438 F-15s in fleet, and their replacement by only 177 F-22s with eventual support from the F-35 is a serious gamble,” said Mr. Cotton, writes the Air Force Times.
The original article in its entirety can be seen here at the Washington Times.
(Featured photo by Jonathan Derden)