Note from AFA President -- F-22

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 5^th 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