Free Republic

Key Points and Summary – The Pentagon’s decision to defund the Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program is a catastrophic mistake that threatens to render the new $13 billion Ford-class aircraft carriers strategically irrelevant.

Restarting the F-22 Raptor production line is a “pipe dream” that is not feasible or strategically wise. The industrial base, including the assembly line and specialized subcontractors, no longer exists, and a 2017 Air Force report estimated a restart would cost a staggering $50 billion. Furthermore, the F-22’s 1990s-era technology is now obsolete and would require an extensive and costly redesign to remain relevant.

Eighty years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, this analysis explores Operation Downfall, the massive Allied invasion of Japan that was averted by Tokyo’s surrender. The two-stage plan, Operations Olympic and Coronet, would have involved more than twice the forces of the Normandy landings and was expected to be unimaginably costly.

The F-117 Nighthawk, the world’s first operational stealth aircraft, was officially retired in 2008 but continues to fly regularly. The U.S. Air Force still uses the iconic jet as a cost-effective platform for several key missions. Primarily, it serves as a unique “aggressor” trainer, simulating foreign stealth aircraft like China’s J-20 to prepare U.S. pilots for modern threats.

The U.S. Navy and the Pentagon are locked in a public struggle over the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter, a program the DoD moved to defund in favor of the Air Force's F-47. The Navy argues the F/A-XX is essential to overcome the critical range limitations of its current F/A-18 and F-35 air wing, keeping its aircraft carriers viable against long-range Chinese "carrier killer" missiles.

Air superiority is no longer just a matter of the capabilities of individual aircraft. It’s a question of posture, doctrine, and overall warfighting infrastructure. And in that domain, the contest is no longer so lopsided. The West can no longer take comfort in its F-35 fleet. The J-20 has evolved into its operational equal—if not its superior.