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Posted on 02/24/2010 4:42:10 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Cancelling the F-22 Raptor, the most capable fighter plane ever produced, is yet another act in the tragedy of a nation that, bankrupting itself, embracing moral decline, and apologizing to its enemies, is losing the will to prevail. In pursuit of false prosperities that have failed even the economy, America for three presidencies and an entire generation has diminished its arsenals, unbalanced its military, and forgotten its genius for strategy.
The campaigns in the Middle East have been like a knife cutting through water, leaving behind the ineluctable infill of countries as divided, unstable, and hostile to our interests as on the day we decided to remake them in our image. Nonetheless, we have recalibrated the armed forces to deal with perhaps a division's worth of fluid irregulars worldwide, thus granting China, Russia, and Iran military holidays in which to redirect the balance of power.
Suppressing terrorism should not come at the expense of conventional forces but rather as a necessary and additional obligation to be accomplished with the left hand as the right is made stronger. The penalty for avoiding this will be Chinese military parity, Russia again a threat to Europe, a nuclear-armed Iran, and one country after another free to invade its neighbors, massacre its peoples, or launch pirates upon the sea.
Amid such static one thing stands out. As we rapidly disarm, China is just as rapidly arming. Perhaps because Americans do not play much chess we seem not to understand that a nation can be defeated without war, that after failing in the art of balance and maneuver the king may still stand, but motionlessly in check, "soft power" notwithstanding. "Soft power" in the absence of hard power is like flesh without a skeleton.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Unmanned airplanes are the future.
69,456,897
maybe because we dont need to spend 200 million dollars on something that alot of other aircraft can do.
its not that important...not in this modern warfare.
I disagree.
The F-22 is the best fighter aircraft in the world: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2444670/posts
It's not an impossibility that command & control of a UAV could be compromised. Insurgents in Iraq even managed to hack the video feeds. Deploying a UAV against more technologically sophisticated opponents, like the Russians or the Chicoms, isn't without risk, perhaps substantial risk.
Unless they're working on long-distance mind control, it's going to be tough for the Chinese to compromise the control of an F22. just a thought.
I agree with everything said in the article. But the quote above should not be taken as an indicator of Teddy's patriotism. All he cared about were the jobs in Massachusetts connected to the Raptor program.
And your qualifications are...What? Noob...
My son has flown against them in combat training exercises. If he is lucky, he and five or six of his wingmen might just get a glimpse of the F-22 before they are shot down.
There is currently NO plane that can do what the F-22 can.
But wait a few years. The Russians and the Chinese are rapidly developing fifth-generation fighters (and advanced drones).
But Hussein doesn't want to "win" anything--
Our Queen is embarrassed by that whole deck-of-the-Missouri thing--
Besides, Hussein was sent to disarm us--we knew that from the 52-second youtube--
--and from the anti-American bent of his backers Soros and the Saudi Prince.
Have we not seen his scrapping of missile defense and his head-long rush into unilateral disarmament through treaties with Russia, and stockpile decay.
Trillions for ACORN and cronies, but not one cent for defense.
An F-22 would be able to shoot down UAV’s by the gross, but so could any of our other fighters.
The real role for the F-22 is to fly CAP, undetected by enemy radar.
A lot of other aircraft? Like which one? Just name one.
There's not much more important than a force's ability to quickly establish air supremacy in the theater of combat. In fact, there's nothing more important.
Your statement suggests that our future opponents will only be back-country rubes. Don't worry, they won't.
Because the type of war we currently find ourselves fighting is the only kind we’ll ever have to fight. Am I right, guys? Who’s with me?
It's a crazy upside down world when we kill off the world's finest fighter we spent so much to develop and nothing else can touch. As they say, "Elections have consequences." And, I would add that ignorance is our most expensive vice...especially those damned ignorant politicians!!!
“And your qualifications are...What? Noob... “
what? I’m supposed to need a Top Secret clearance or be apart of the brass in Washington to know a bad idea?
Don’t try and knock me down because i disagree with your world.
noob? Ive been in the Infantry - served in Iraq. Now I’m a UH-60 pilot. What qualifications do i need? Are you apart of the f-22 program that warrants you right and me wrong?
We continually make new weapons and the devices to guide them on target.
Sooner or later, the US or someone else will make something better and the F-22 will be obsolete. Deal with it. its Warfare.
Yes. And will be for some time. The new Russian PAK-FA has a radar cross section of half a square meter -- far larger than the Raptor's RCS of a small bird or insect.
Are you really arguing that, because something will one day become obsolete, we should never create it to begin with?
NO, im saying there are other things we can focus on. i tell you what, this is certainly an emotional topic for some of you.
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