Killing the F-22

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The F-22 is very expensive, but delivers air superiority in return. The Secretary of Defense has announced that the Air Force will stop buying them.

In his Commentary posting regarding Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his DoD budget proposals, Max Boot makes the following statement:

I think Gates made a perfectly defensible decision to stop buying more F-22s while increasing and speeding up the acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

That would seem a prudent choice except for one small problem: the F-35 is not a replacement for, nor equivalent to, the F-22, as the Wall Street Journal recognizes. The F-22 is a higher performance aircraft designed specifically for the air superiority role, while the F-35 -- as is suggested by its description as the "Joint Strike Fighter" -- is intended for use primarily as a ground attack aircraft. The F-22 sports a Mach 1.5 "supercruise" capability and vectored thrust for enhanced/high-altitude maneuvering whereas the F-35 does not.

One capability of the F-22 that seems to be ignored, or just left unmentioned, is that of a "first strike" weapon if armed with nukes. A fleet of these virtually undetectable and 1.5 Mach cruising birds could, theoretically, wipe out an enemy's nuclear strike capacity without forewarning, which ICBMs provide. [snip]

Another, more likely explanation for the Chinese objecting to the Japanese acquiring F-22s may be its built-in signals intelligence capabilities. Recall the "incident" shortly after Bush became President in 2001 that involved the collision between a Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft and a Chinese fighter. [snip] All this would have been avoided had there been an F-22 on the job gathering electronic intelligence. The Chinese would not have suspected it was there even if it flew directly over their new underground/undersea nuke sub base. [snip]

With all the trillions being squandered on a whole host of diversionary and useless programs, Gates crying about "cost" and "fiscal responsibility" is, to put it mildly, hogwash. And, considering the past actions of the Chinese who, according to the FBI, are the most likely perps behind a couple of major blackouts in the U.S., these 'concerns' are well within the bounds of possibility.

If you think not, perhaps you should have a peek at Mr. Cox's report.

[Imagine US {or any military's} capabilities without air superiority. We cannot do without it. The F35 does not provide it. This is a foolish decision at any time - with the obvious intentions of China and Russia it's lunacy.

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