Last night ABC news did a piece on the F-22 … and I am told 60 minutes
also plans to do one. Simply put – from my perspective – the piece was a
hatchet job. ABC had no one … repeat no one … who could provide balance –
the other side of the issue.
One of AFA’s Airpower Advocates was to give a talk to a civic group
this morning … and asked me what he should say about the issue. His
specific questions were:
What
are the facts to the claims of: $500M airplane; never flown in combat; designed
for a Soviet fighter that doesn’t exist; an O2 system that kills pilots and
after groundings could not be fixed?
I responded:
[Name
deleted], here is what I say about it.
- The flyaway cost for the last block of F-22s was $142M each.
- Because DoD terminated the program before 752 were delivered, the R&D costs were amortized over a smaller number of A/C. Much like the B-2
- There’s a lesson here: we have to buy aircraft – especially fighters – in quantity
- Government gets a better price – quantity discount and for multi-year procurement saves even more …
- Quality of the manufacturing process improves as one goes down the learning curve
- The last block of F-22s came off the production line without any defects … and on time and budget
- Nation gets the assets it needs to defend the US
- Our
daughters and sons fly modern equipment – not 50 year old planes that
are geriatric
- Part of
the F-22 R&D costs rolled into the F-35 program … so they were needed
in any event
- The F-22 has not flown in combat … despite requests from theater commanders for them
- The reason for this is simple – they were not needed
- The F-22 IOC’d (Initial Operational Capability) in 2005 – well after we had attained air superiority in Iraq and Afghanistan
- There
is evidence that Sec Gates did not approve commander requests for the
aircraft so he could implement his cancellation order and not be
overturned by Congress
- The F-22 is needed for any combat zone where there are modern air defenses.
- This includes places such as PRC, Iran, RU, Taiwan
- The US considered creating a no-fly zone over the country of Georgia when the Russians attacked Georgia … and the only airplane that could have survived was the F-22 … due to the Russians deploying modern SAMs to their border
- If the US had used F-22s for Libya, they could have saved many billions of dollars of Tomahawks … as the aircraft could have roamed the battlefield with impunity and plinked key targets with JDAMs.
- Both the Russians and the Chinese are building 5th generation fighters
- The Russians have already agreed to sell theirs to India
- China has indicated it will sell theirs
- We
may not fight either country … but we will fight their “stuff”
- Never in
the history of modern warfare has one side won in combat without air
superiority. It is like Oxygen – you need it and you won’t miss it
until you don’t have it.
- The Oxygen system is a problem [note the slick transition from the point above] … and the AF has put its brightest minds on fixing it … but they don’t yet know what the problem is
- The Air Force says it was not the cause of the (F-22) accident in Alaska …
- It is the same system that is on the Navy’s F-18
- The F-18 has had more than 20 incidents with the system … and doesn’t know why either
- One has to wonder why the public (and ABC) is not focusing on the safety of F-18s …
- The Navy joined the AF in trying to determine how to fix the system
- The AF has made significant changes to warn the pilots of problems – filters, warning lights, supplement O2, etc.
- But … these are just that … supplemental … and don’t fix the problem
- The AF hopes to know by late summer what the actual cause is
I
would only add one more point … Senator McCain appeared on ABC, making some
deprecating remarks about the aircraft. The exchange went like this:
“(Brian) ROSS: Senator John McCain, a former combat pilot himself,
says the plane was designed to fight a next-generation Soviet jet that was
never built, and has little use now against the enemies America is fighting.
(Senator) MCCAIN: There’s no purpose unless you believe that al
Qaeda is going to have a fleet of aircraft.”
The
good Senator (who I believe knows better) implies we should only build the
force to fight Al Qaida. That is shortsighted on many levels … planning
to fight the last war; not preparing for the future; etc., etc. Taken to
the extreme, it would imply we need a much smaller Navy – which I think is also
shortsighted.
For
your consideration.
Mike
Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association
"The only thing more expensive than a
first-rate Air Force is … a second-rate Air Force." -- Senate
staff member
Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association
6 comments:
General Dunn,
I have been retired from the Air Force since 1985, so am not privy to the latest thinking in aircraft systems design, but I have difficulty seeing the logic in abandoning proven liquid oxygen systems for the on-board oxygen generators used by the F-22 and F-18. Why? Any ideas?
Respectfully,
Adolphus H. Bledsoe Jr.
Col, USAF, Retired
These criticisms of the F-22 almost mirror those of the B-1 20 years ago. Cost, use in combat, oxygen system, numbers, lack of need. Look at how well it's doing in combat now.
As to why OBOGS vs LOX = weight.
Good comments. As to McCain, he's blatantly anti-AF; his treatment of Gen Speedy Martin years ago is but an example
F-22 was built to defeat advanced aircraft, and to defeat the rest of the world's increasingly more capable 4th generation aircraft that were putting F-15, F-16, and F-18s at risk. Sen McCain has repeatedly shown his anti-AF bias, and wasn't that great a pilot himself.
Sen McCain is right on, the us needs 3 fa18 hornets instead of one f22. The air force can not guide itself. Case in point the c27. What a sad story that is. Then we can go to the global hawk, another sad story . The only service in worst shape is the navy that can not count ships.
The United States must achieve air dominance in future wars to protect our national interest.
F-22 along with F-35 are the right systems. Freedom is not free.
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