Why We Need the F-22

[JungleJett]

Officers of course, they have not an E offically near the controls of something that flies in the USAF since 1945

Not exactly true...I flew as a pilot on airplane owned by the USAF...sort of.

I was put on active duty (state) orders to fly Civil Air Patrol airplanes in counter drug missions. I was an E-5 at the time..

Like I said...sort of.

But no E's will fly the UAV's because the officers would moan about it.

 

[JungleJett]

Braking the back of the ARH and the MRAP too. Anyone in the Air Force request MRAP's for their security forces?

The MiG-25 was designed to counter the XB-70. Seems we are always leap frogging with the russians. Now, with the demise of the -22, we may have allowed ourselves to be really out jumped.

How much has the US Army spent on AC-130's, A-10's, F-16's, slick C-130's, C-17's, B-52's , F-15's, AWACS, JSTARS, C-5's, MC-12's, KC-10's, and KC-135's..ect.

We know you want more money spent on the ground troops and protecting them. War is a multi-tiered operation and robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the answer. The programs you want killed are ultimately there to provide support to ground combatants.

 

[pilotyip]

Future UAV aerial combat? Some day in the future another country may be flying UAV's over a battlefield with the capability to shoot down other UAV's. If you shoot down five UAV's do you get to be an ace? Do you get the DFC or Silver Star? How about an Air Metal for every five UAV flights. Has anyone taught about this part of the UAV equation?

 

[bagasticks]

it doesnt help the situation when defense contractors always come in over budget behind schedule and with a flawed product. Vendors run slobbering to government contracts because they know its a blank check guarded by bulldogs with rubber teeth. .

The world's best combat aircraft were created, funded, employed effectively, when asses were to the fire. They were NOT brought on by agendas of politicians seeking jobs for their states or shoe-clerk colonels trying to get a star and a 7 figure job upon retirement (think KC767). . .

The solution. . . . unfortunately, im afraid, like the first half of the 20th century, will be reactive, not proactive.

 

[Pirate]

Future UAV aerial combat? Some day in the future another country may be flying UAV's over a battlefield with the capability to shoot down other UAV's. If you shoot down five UAV's do you get to be an ace? Do you get the DFC or Silver Star? How about an Air Metal for every five UAV flights. Has anyone taught about this part of the UAV equation?

I think what other nations will do is figure out how to jam or disrupt our control of these UAVs. I am sure that the signals controling our UAVs are complex but it is only a matter of time before some 15 year old Chinese kid with a box of parts from Radio Shack finds a way to make the pilot lose control. Maybe through hacking the network that controls them, meaconing the operational area with so many signals that it confuses the UAV or some sort of directed EMP. These things will be obsolete and we will be back to piloted aircraft.

 

[f9driver]

Why We Need the F-22
It’s been more than half a century since American soldiers were killed by hostile aircraft. Let's keep it that way.
By MERRILL A. MCPEAK

The United States relies on the Air Force, and the Air Force has never been the decisive factor in the history of war.

—Saddam Hussein,
before Desert Storm

High-end conventional war is characterized by the clash of industrial forces. It’s armored, mechanized and increasingly air-power centric. Few are equipped by training or temperament to understand the phenomenon, especially as it concerns air warfare, a relatively recent aspect of the human experience. (In this regard, Saddam Hussein had plenty of company.) But the bottom line is that in high-end conventional war, neither our Army nor Navy can be defeated unless someone first defeats our Air Force.

For high-end conventional war we’ve built an Air Force that, for now, is virtually unbeatable. Anyone looking at our air-power capabilities knows there is little hope they can concentrate conventional forces for decisive engagement of our Army or Navy. We will track them and pick them to pieces. When Saddam Hussein tried us on for size in the early-1990s, the ground war was a four-day walkover that followed the initial 39 days of aerial combat.

So today, no one in his right mind wants to fight us in a conventional war. Many are saying this another way: that we have no “peer competitor,” that there is no threat of high-end conventional war. I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that, but, if it is so, it is a desirable condition and one that didn’t happen by accident.

We have forced anyone with a bone to pick with us to find an alternative to high-end, conventional war. We’ve had to invent a vocabulary for this low end: “asymmetrical” conflict, it being another poorly understood activity. But it seems clear that in this sort of war our existence is not threatened, that we can regulate the resource input. It can be expensive in men and material, but we cannot be defeated militarily.

When the enemy succeeds, it is because we do not defeat him and then weary of the fight. This is not a good outcome, but it is better—and much cheaper for us in lives and treasure—than losing a high-end, conventional conflict.

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. But the F-22’s production run may soon come to an end at just 187 planes, well short of establishing the fleet size we need. After all, it’s expensive, and getting more so as the number contemplated has been repeatedly reduced. In an argument they seem to think makes sense, critics say the aircraft has no worthy opponent—as if we want to create forces that do have peer competitors.

It’s been more than half a century since any American soldier or Marine has been killed, or even wounded, by hostile aircraft, a period roughly coincident with the existence of the Air Force as a separate service. Even during the Korean War—the Air Force’s first engagement wearing new, blue uniforms—enemy air attack was primitive and rare. The main air battle was fought along the Yalu River, just as in Vietnam it was fought over Hanoi, and in Desert Storm, over Baghdad. Our guys on the ground had hard work to do, but when they looked up, they saw only friendly skies.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why we should wish to change this.

Gen. McPeak (ret.), Air Force chief of staff from 1990 to 1994, was a national co-chair of Obama for President.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574332870284931470.html

We don't need ANY aircraft that costs $300 million.
McPeak has blue tatooed on his rear!.

 

[Ill Mitch]

Future UAV aerial combat? Some day in the future another country may be flying UAV's over a battlefield with the capability to shoot down other UAV's. If you shoot down five UAV's do you get to be an ace? Do you get the DFC or Silver Star? How about an Air Metal for every five UAV flights. Has anyone taught about this part of the UAV equation?

A USAF friend of mine operated UAV's in Iraq a couple of years ago. He wondered if he spilled coffee on his lap and got burned if he would eligible for the purple heart. As it stood, he got some combat ribbons for it.

 

[climbhappy]

if you take the logic of a one fleet type and its inherent cost advantages, why wouldn't the F35 JSF be the low cost alternative? i was just at an airshow. saw 4 types, fighter/bomber. the A10 is begin retired. it's looks the predator spots them, then you call in the strike. does it have to be an F22 for that new role of a fighter/bomber? lastly, unless we fight a real adversary, current types do the job can't they? I'm ignorant on this so enlighten me. thanks for your service to the country.

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

The A-10 is NOT being retired anytime soon.

It should be transferred to the Army. In fact, the whole AF should be transferred to the Army and Navy.

cliff
NBO

 

[Hobit]

Hi!

The A-10 is NOT being retired anytime soon.

It should be transferred to the Army. In fact, the whole AF should be transferred to the Army and Navy.

cliff
NBO

Incoming!:bomb: