USAF air superiority depends on this one fighter: The Raptor.Have I said how much I HATE the leadership in DC these days...what a bunch of lilly livered men and women who have not only FORGOTTEN what their Oath of Office says but have turned their back on our security.
God forgive me, and I will pray about it, but I hate what they are doing to our country. I do. It is so very, very wrong.
Just wanted that line to sink in to the naysayers out there that said it wouldn't happen.
As a prior member of Air Combat Command, I can say that the Air Force fighter-pilot leadership is largely to blame for the AF’s plight. They allowed the entire AF infrastructure to go to waste while they continued to push for their F-22 program. Meanwhile their ground radar systems, maintenance teams, logistical support, cyber warfare capability, nuclear fleet, and space systems have all been allowed to rot all for the precious new plane. So now they have an F-22 that has not been deployable to the war zone. Gates has no confidence in the current Air Force leadership, otherwise you would not have seen a few top level Air Force firings, the return of TAC (as Global Strike), cyber command being removed from ACC as well as combat comm, and the navy being looked at as the choice service for ballistic missile defense and possibly for the future of our GPS-type systems.
The fighter pilots had the keys to the Air Force kingdom and they have blown it. I loved the military, but the truth is that the Air Force is just another beauracratic government agency that thinks little of the taxpayer money and run by powerful men disconnected from what does and does not work at a tactical level.
WTF?
Hasn't the Air Force ever heard of cost benefit?
Why send a Ferrari to do a Pickup's job?
He trained in Wyo at what is now an USAF base.
HE trained with a ‘rifle’ made from a broomstick and a piece of 2x4.
When he was shipping out to the combat zone (PTO) he asked about his weapon. He was told that he would get on in-theater, from a casualty - and they had a LOT of casualties.
He told me he swore an oath to the Lord that if he lived thru the war, he would fight (and pay) to ensure his sons would never have to go to war so damnably prepared. I did pretty good while in service. What Dad didn't understand was that he should have added his Grandchildren to his oath......
Don’t need weapons, just apology tours and group hugs.
The left will destroy our military.
I was in the Navy during Vietnam and afterward, and I remember what happened to the military under Jimmy Carter. The military was hit hard by cuts in spending and personnel. Many excellent officers and enlisted were forced to leave. Obama needs the military for domestic purposes. He and congress know that without the threat of military force against the people of the United States, the people would revolt against him and congress. The Federal government could not function without the military; however, you don’t need the latest and best military equipment to enforce martial law. Civilians don’t usually own jets and tanks. If the government is successful in seizing personal weapons, such as firearms, the populus will be totally defenseless. I’m not saying that the majority of Americans are planning to overthrow the government, but my point is that without force of arms there is no way to enforce the rules and regulations pumped out by Congress. Liberals and Socialists fear their electorate more than they fear foreign enemies. Obama and Congress are going to try and reduce the deficit spending on the backs of the military, but they will always need an army.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
USAF air superiority depends on this one fighter: The Raptor.In fact, for FY 2008, it only had a 62 percent mission capable rate. It has never flown a combat sortie over either Iraq or Afghanistan, despite the fact that the 1 FW at Langley (an F-22 wing) was IOC in 2005 and FOC in 2007.
This 62% Mission capable rate comes at a high pricetag, too. $360 MILLION per plane. Yes, that is $360,000,000 for ONE fighter plane. No wonder they would've never wanted to send the planes to Afghanistan or Iraq. You couldn't afford to lose one (even a loss due to a breakdown).
The only reason the F-22 wasn't killed during the Bush administration was that Congress really didn't care what the Bush administration wanted and appropriated the money anyway. Why? This is a Murtha thing. And, by the way, it's bipartisan.
Let's look at some of the key supporters for the program. The prime contractors (Boeing - Lockheed team) contributed over $78,000 to Murtha last cycle. More importantly, as the chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, he controls whether or not that item stays in the budget or not. (His support for programs that benefit other members, of either party, help guarantee their support for pork-barrel government projects, apparently unrelated, for his district).
Who else are big supporters? Look at a few of them:
Bottom line: there's a lot of money going on here. The reason Congress is supporting this has NOTHING to do with national defense. It has to do with money, lobbyists, and / or pieces of F-22 being built in their districts.
If somebody can show me a Congressman who has come out and who has NO interest in this (either by district jobs or political contributions), I'll be very, very surprised.
As for the Air Force Association (who wrote this piece), it does great work. I am not besmirching the AFA, but you've got to keep in mind that it is a private industry-military organization, it *is not* part of the Air Force. If you take a look at AFA's officers, you will find that all of them are former AF people, but they are also either current or former aerospace-defense industry people too. For example, Joseph Sutter (AFA Chairman) was formerly with a electromechanical component manufacturer, Jim Lauducci (AFA Vice Chair) works for Harris, Sanford Schnitt is on the Board of Directors of Comdial...and so on. The point is that I have never read an Air Force magazine that said "this major acquisition program is a dog. The AF ought to scrap it." Not for the F-22, not for anything. Not to say it hasn't happened, but I don't remember it.
Bottom line is that yeah, we need to have a replacement for the F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s, but the F-22 isn't it. If a plane is so expensive that you won't use it ($360M a pop) and it's so undependable that they won't trust it (mission capable 62%), what the heck good is it?
While we dither, disarm, and allow our Air Force to decay under the leadership of a Chicago pol community organizer, the Russian and Chinese air forces continue to modernize and prepare for the next air war.