Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Why we need the F-22
The Scotsman reports that a new Eurofighter Typhoon single-handedly beat two F-15s in a mock dog fight. This suggests that last years embarrassing loss in the Cope India war-game by USAF pilots flying F-15s to Indian pilots flying a mix of Soviet developed Su-30s, Mig-29s, Mig-27s, and Mig 21s was not just bad luck. The F-15 was the best air-to-air fighter plane in the world when it was deployed in the mid 1970s. It has been upgraded since so that current F-15s are better than they were 30 years ago. But the fact remains that the F-15 is a 1960’s design made with 1970’s technology. There is only so much improvement that can be done to a three decade old design, and now even with the best upgrades an F-15 is inferior to the current generation of European and Russian fighter planes that are being sold all over the world. That is why, despite some complaints of its expense, the USAF needs the F-22.
I understand that other branches of the service need more money for their developments, but the place to find money is not out of the Air Force’s fighter budget. It has been a long time since American soldiers and Marines have not enjoyed the benefit if fighting under an umbrella of air supremacy, and losing that benefit would be a costly military blunder. Air supremacy is more than just protecting our troops from enemy bombs, delivering air strikes against enemy soldiers, and allowing the more vulnerable UAVs to freely roam the skies sending back intelligence to ground commanders in the event of war. The ability to achieve air supremacy is also a strong deterrence that helps to prevent such wars from even starting. Considering all the effort potential rivals like China are putting into modernizing their air forces, we would be both reducing our ability to deter aggression against us or our allies and increasing the losses we would suffer in responding to such aggression if we do not regain the lead in air combat with the F-22.
Neither I nor this website are in anyway affiliated with the F-22 program, mfg, or suppliers. I just don’t like the idea of being one or more generations behind our potential enemies in so vital an area of military technology.
I understand that other branches of the service need more money for their developments, but the place to find money is not out of the Air Force’s fighter budget. It has been a long time since American soldiers and Marines have not enjoyed the benefit if fighting under an umbrella of air supremacy, and losing that benefit would be a costly military blunder. Air supremacy is more than just protecting our troops from enemy bombs, delivering air strikes against enemy soldiers, and allowing the more vulnerable UAVs to freely roam the skies sending back intelligence to ground commanders in the event of war. The ability to achieve air supremacy is also a strong deterrence that helps to prevent such wars from even starting. Considering all the effort potential rivals like China are putting into modernizing their air forces, we would be both reducing our ability to deter aggression against us or our allies and increasing the losses we would suffer in responding to such aggression if we do not regain the lead in air combat with the F-22.
Neither I nor this website are in anyway affiliated with the F-22 program, mfg, or suppliers. I just don’t like the idea of being one or more generations behind our potential enemies in so vital an area of military technology.
