Posted on 08/10/2009 9:31:47 AM PDT by khnyny
There’s a nice little piece over in today’s Wall Street Journal authored by General Merrill McPeak, expressing his dismay at the premature termination of the build-out of the originally-planned fleet of the F-22 Raptor - the kick-*ss air-superiority fighter pictured above.
The piece is rather good, so I’ll let you go read the whole thing via the link.
I’ll just note a couple of things here:
The future air combat capabilities we should build are based on the F-22, a stealthy, fast, maneuverable fighter that is unmatched by any known or projected combat aircraft.
….
It’s been more than half a century since any American soldier or Marine has been killed, or even wounded, by hostile aircraft….
That first item is simply a statement of fact, while the second is a truly-astonishing description of an unparalleled military achievement.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
LOL.
McPeak was a lousy AF COS and is a ‘RAT stooge.
General McPeak is past his.
"The Raptor’s advantages over an F-15 are remarkable. It flies better than anything I have ever flown or flown against."F-16 and F-15 Pilots take on F-22...and die wholesale in the process
"Aggressor pilots are not typical Air Force line units. They tend to have much more experience," says Mike Estrada, a spokesman at the air base. "And I can tell you that our Aggressor pilots are getting very tired of always getting shot down by the F-22."F-22 Performance statistics released
"My F-16 is still a formidable weapons system in its own right. But it is not even in the same league as an F-22," Brenton says. "Technology keeps the F-22 a virtually undetectable and untouchable regime. It is fair to say that unless an F-22 driver makes a mistake, or has a critical system failure, I will always lose a fight against him. That is a good thing. As a nation, we want it this way. We also want him to be able to handle two, six or eight of us completely on his own."
When it comes to fighting Raptors, regeneration is an expected occurrence for WIC Red Teams. "We do everything we can to try and challenge them: We increase our total numbers, we regenerate, we electronically jam the environment. And we die," Brenton says. "We die wholesale. We are kill- removed repeatedly and then regenerated, and then we are killed again. The process would be demoralizing if we didn't maintain proper perspective. This is our job while we are here. What motivates us is the fact that we are training our brethren—and they are damn good at what they do."
But now, we will end up at 187 of these fabulous, most modern, most dominant fighters.
187 F-22's, 20- B-2's and 100 B-1B's. Does anyone else not see anything wrong with this picture?
These are tremendous force multipliers for us...we need many more to ensure our absolute dominance...but we have a marxist in the White House, abetted by more of the same in congress, who are not interested in us dominating anything.
To the contrary, they appear hell bent on us being dominated at home and abroad. They thus fail to fulfill the very most basic function of government.
A PETITION ON FACEBOOK FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
A 4TH OF JULY TEA PARTY SPEECH
...and on the lighter side, take your mind off the Obamanation for a few minutes and enjoy some beautiful Western US scenery slideshows.
“General Merrill McPeak” is like the CLAP!
Isn’t the bottom line on these F22’s really about Israel?
He was instrumental in the Obama campaign.. Yet Obama telegraphed that he was going to cut the F-22.. So no matter what he writes in what ever paper he writes it in.. He proves that he was and is a IDIOT!
Well, McPeak’s point is that the F-22 is our Spitfire. One good thing that Chamberlain did in delaying the outbreak of war was to give the Brits time to build enough Spitfires. It was a damn close run, but the Spitfires made it possible for the Brits to win the Battle of Britain.
Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that can be used against military funding. "Look, there no threats to our men! I mean, no enemy air force has killed one of our guys for 50 years! Why do we even need an air force, anyway?"
I've been this sort of thinking for Naval funding. By some measures, the last naval battle that the US engaged in was Leyte Gulf in 1944 (I'm sure this is a debatable point, bu the general point is there). So, if we haven't "used" our navy in over 60 years, maybe we don't need it, eh?
Let me be clear: These arguments totally miss the value of having a powerful military. But a lot of voters and politicians don't get it.
Both the USAF and the US Navy's Air Force are run by fighter jocks. To them, the ONLY real aircraft are fighters. Same with aircraft carriers. They are the ONLY real ships. Mine warfare, patrol aviation, rotary wing aviation, etc., are always at the bottom of the money barrel. Not surprisingly, all three are being killed slowly so more money is available to more Sierra Hotel stuff (The P-8 is already on life support as there will be insufficient funding to produce a meaningful number of aircraft; a UCAV will take its place). It is a truism that all militaries tend to plan to refight the last war, not the next war. Third World fourth generation AIP submarines are going to neutralize our carrier battle groups come the next war. War in Third World hell holes will be largely immune to the F-22 because no one will challenge them and enemy stuff will be deep underground. The armed forces are reluctantly dealing with this by working on improved unmanned combat aerial vehicles, to the choking horror of today's military fliers who are the last flightcrews that we will ever have. Third World nukes will stalemate even small military responses from the U.S.
That first item is simply a statement of fact, while the second is a truly-astonishing description of an unparalleled military achievement.
Just WOW!
Spitfires, and tetraethyl lead.
Na we already have McPain.
Spitfires, Hurricanes and RADAR!
Hah, I didn’t see your thread before I posted the WSJ article or I wouldn’t have posted it.
I was thinking of throwing in the Hurricanes; I think there were more of them than Spitfires.
Totally forgot about RADAR, though.
I think its a huge mistake to undercut the F22. It will maintain our edge while we develop and polish the next level uav fighter/bombers.
So no Americans died from NVA aircraft in Vietnam?????? Even when they shot down our thuds, nobody died?
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